That was Then, This is Now
by VanillaSpiders
Summary: AU Steampunkverse Years after the last Truffula falls, Ted Wiggins goes looking for the Once-Ler. What he finds is not what he expects, and what finds him is thinking much along the same lines. What mind you, not who.
1. Start of Something

_Chapter 1: 'The Start of Something'_

Ted Wiggins was lost.

And not in the kind of lost that you can easily get out of. It was the kind of lost where you're moving along and you're not stopping even though every part of your body but your motor skills are saying 'it's okay to keep moving, you'll get there when you get there, right?' He was twenty degrees west of the wrong end of town. Maybe because this wasn't town anymore, and it _wasn't_ familiar. It was huge and black and barren, a thick wind that struck at odd intervals and blew through your small thirteen year old frame, right through your two shirts. It blew dust into your eyes—but thank god you're wearing goggles.

It smogged the air out here, snuck into the lungs, it made life miserable.

This whole place was miserable. No wonder no one came out here. Nothing lived here, no living thing could possibly…well, hopefully, Ted was wrong about that. He only needed one thing, persons actually, to be living out here. That's all he needed.

So yes, he was lost. But he was not panicking. Not yet.

So the boy traveled on, the one plus side to all this was he wasn't forced to walk this dead and empty road out past the town's high walls, his one-wheeled scooter doing all the rough work, Ted was just steering.

And cursing. He was doing a lot of that ever since he'd taken a sharp right at South Stitch and started getting that prickly 'wrong end of town I think I'm in' feeling. Wrong end of town…? More like, wrong end of the ruins of the world.

The Street of the Lifted Lorax…that's where he needed to be to get what he'd come out all this way for.

Well, sort of. That was where he'd find the person who would, with a little luck and a lot of kindness, would give him the thing he'd come all this way for.

"Find the Once-Ler, Grammy said. It'll be easy, she said." Ted moaned as he headed into a darker patch of what looked like…fog? He loved that old woman, seriously but sometimes…

'_Take the road to North Nitch,'_ He'd done that, for as far as he'd could. His grandmother's words echoed in the boy's head as Ted scooted along, face set in concentration behind his wide goggles. _'Left at Weehakwen…sharp right at South Stitch.' _

Well he'd done all that, to the T, afraid that if he strayed from the path he wouldn't just lose sight of the town behind him but that he'd lose his way to and back from the Once-Ler's place. He needed this strange, forgotten man, he needed him because he had a seed, and a seed turned into a tree and…

A slightly dopey smile slid over Ted's face as his mind drifted to lovely thoughts about soft smiles and bright red hair. Audrey…

Something shot out of the dark, coming straight for his face, and Ted yanked back on the handles, sending himself spine first down as he roughly avoided an-an AXE?

"Wha—" He had no time to shout, he'd lose his throat faster than it would take to scream in surprise, Ted jerked the scooter this way and that, the strange many armed axe wielder was laying still and Ted was the one who was moving, but that's not what it felt like!

"….Grandma…." he moaned as he flopped tiredly over his handle pbars after extracting himself form that mess, "if I live, we're gonna have words about sending your only grandchild into dangerous axe landscapes." He stressed quietly a moment longer, collected his thoughts and reminded himself WHY he was on this mission. To make the girl of his dreams the happiest girl in the whole wide world. Right. He could do this. And then for one agonizing moment Ted _almost_ thought about turning back until…something came into view. Something too dark and too solid to be fake or Ted's imagination. The boy lit up and headed straight for it, and what loomed into view was exactly what he was looking for.

Unfortunately.

Something suddenly cawed at his approach to the street sign and the house that sat moodily in front of him a ways away. Ted blinked and coasted to a stop, moving to stand on one leg

'_And no birds ever sing, excepting old crows…' _Granny had said. _'Is the Street of the Lifted Lorax. Here you'll find the Once-Ler's house, Teddy.'_

It….looked like a house. The…Once-ler's Lerkim? Was that what Granny had called it? Granny Norma wasn't getting punchy in her old age, Ted knew but, still, gosh this was hard to take seriously.

This place was worse than the rest of the land. It hunched over like an old man, long forgotten gears and mechanical parts of the house had stopped on the outside—the same could be said for its inside, Ted assumed.

…how was it even standing!

Ted set his bike to one side carefully, leaning it against the old lamp post that had a shattered bulb in it—with broken glass. Someone had broken the light on purpose, it hadn't been an accident.

And the old, old, depilated building glared down at Ted with blackened windows where the glass was missing, and Ted almost preferred that to the windows that were boarded up, because it felt like…it felt like this place had been boarded up to keep something _in_. Not just out. Dark clouds sat high above and cast down nothing but gloominess and sadness, an tone of regret and things long ago.

'_The Once-Ler lives outside of town, but he'll help you. You just have to be careful. He's got…he has a friend that I'm sure is still around, that probably won't give you any trouble if you keep your wits about you. Oh but, you're a sweet kid Teddy, I'm sure it'll be alright…' _

"…What have you gotten me into Grammy Norma?" Ted moaned quietly to an old crow perched on the lamppost arm above him.

It cawed. Mechanically. It was a robot stuck in place and meant to look like the real thing, Ted realized with a horrified closer look.

Ted shivered, and this time the wind had nothing to do with it.

The inside of the house was worse…but maybe that was because he'd gone in the _back_ door behind the Lerkim. That was because the front door had…attacked him. Flung him away_, sling shoted_ him gracelessly almost past the lamppost and now he was sore and a bit cranky and really, no one had answered when he'd called out, was the Once-Ler here or wasn't he? Why was the concept of leaving an 'out for lunch' note so hard to grasp for some people?

But the invention at the door—it had worked like it had been set only recently.

So the Once-Ler was either keeping something out, or keeping something in.

Or both.

Someone must be here, or maybe there was clues to where someone might have gone or…or maybe there was a seed just sitting on the coffee table waiting for him? Theodore Wiggins swallowed but he did not panic. He slid in through the half open door and stepped right into an ancient world of filth and oil. He wrinkled his noise at the irony smell but edged further in bravely. He couldn't tell what room he was in, the place was too dark in one corner and all he was ahead of him was a hall. Well, there was certainly no one in this part of the house, but maybe further on?

The floor boards creaked under him, something ahead scampered out of his way. The boy's shoulders lifted and he tried to flatten the hair on the back of neck by pure will alone. (It didn't work.) He trudged on, breathing through his mouth when the air became thick enough to choke someone. The next room he entered looked like the center of the house…and the center of an explosion, with all the things scattered and thrown, the oily scent got stronger.

Maybe this had been a workshop and an office once?

The young boy wasted no time in exploring more, it wasn't like this place was homely or welcoming, and that didn't make Ted think about trespassing, how could it? This entire run down tall shed was a lot more interesting on the _inside_ than it appeared from the out. Ted had a feeling that was by design. But maybe his seed was in here, just maybe.

Still…no sign of any living creature, human or no.

But…boy there were a lot of tools. Wrenches, nuts and bolts scattered here and there. It was a work shop well worked in. Lived in. Ted's sneakers hit a screw and sent it rolling, leaving a tiny dusty trail in its wake. He followed with it his eyes, until it hit the clawed foot of a piece of wood, and Ted squinted, trailing his eyes up a thick desk leg to its surface—also dark with dust—to the tall thin form perched upright on the desk.

Ted swallowed and then his mouth fell open as his eyes widened at the shape.

A _robot_.

"Okay, _whoa_…" The awe slipped from his mouth before he could stop it, just like his legs carried him forward and brought him to stand in front of the robot and stare upward.

It was…_sitting_ on a desk, in the dark of the room, small tiny gray light cut through the black of the dusty, oily smelling room.

Well, it certainly looked like a robot, it was very human in shape, if it weren't for the fact it was utterly motionless and had one thicker obviously metal arm slack at its right side, the slightly dangerous looking clawed hand settled in a limp curve on the edge of the desk, mirroring the other hand. The head was bowed forward; chin nearly hitting its dark green chest, but its dark cropped synthetic hair hung down lightly. Whatever this was it was amazing and it was made well, Ted could just tell.

Now if only it was working…

They'd had things like this in the grocer's, running the check outs. On the road, fixing small repairs. Robots, automatons, were a part of Ted's life, just like bottled air. So it wasn't so much of a shock to see this automaton in suspended sleep mode as it was to see it so hunched over and _old_ looking.

He didn't know a lot about androids but…suddenly he wanted too. This thing called for it, stuck in such a way for how many years and it still looked impressive. In its hay day, however long ago that was, it must have been an amazing piece of technology.

The desk was in the middle of the room for some reason, the automaton's throne in this black castle of grime and decrepitated paraphernalia. Ted spared the papers on the desk only a moment's glance, then doubletaked as he saw written in the faded scrawl certain words on some of the aged documents.

'_Once-Ler…'_

'…_factory…'_

'…_.no more…thneeds…'_

'_Once…' _The rest of the words were covered in layers of dirt or hidden forever under a spilled pile of ink that had been over turned.

Ted whipped back up to peer at that bowed head closer. Was _this_…the Once-Ler? Was that possible? After today, Ted was starting to think anything was possible. If at least not improbable.

In the back of the body, Ted saw as he edged around the desk, the hunched over form had a slot running along where a spine would be. It was long but at the top….at the top, almost at the base of its neck, was a bit bigger square with its hatch open, the robot's dusty clothes pulled down to show the opening better. Ted pushed the chair out of the way and stepped up behind the robot, trying to see into the hole in its neck.

Huh.

This guy was clothed, and finely from what it looked like. It was taken care of, or it HAD been taken care of, that was easy to figure out. Ted started digging in his pocket, wondering why this felt right. But if, if his hunch was right and this WAS the Once-Ler, and Granny had said to give this stuff to him then…then this was the right thing to do, wasn't it? The boy took only a second to look down at the items clustered in his palm, and something that he might have considered silly struck him as he stood there to actually go through with this. But really, he was probably long past silly and borderline _crazy_ to even BE here so, so why not…take a chance?

Ted reached up and slipped in fifteen cents, and a nail, and the shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail.

Nothing happened, at first.

Until suddenly it did.

'It' being…_noises_. Gears turned within it somewhere, the body rattled and hissed and gurgled. Clanking metal moaned and creaked and Ted jumped back automatically on guard, his eyes widening, still at the back of the automaton.

Across the room in front of the robot, green dots of soft light hit the wall as the neck turned the head upward. At first its actions were jerky and uneven, and then slowly but surely it started smoothing out. Gears whirred as the joints moved and that thick clawed hand crunched into through the wood and left groves when it pulled back and started testing other limbs for functionality. Ted licked dry lips, suddenly frozen as this thing jerked and straightened to life right there in the desk. The robot's throat let out a grating noise that might have meant something if Ted spoke robot. The spine moved to perfect posture, and Ted could finally notice how tall this automaton was.

The green lights, widened, shrank, widened again. They started moving around in unison, the head looking around slowly and but surely, like it was searching.

After all this time…and it still worked!

"…holy cow." Again, the words tumbled past his lips. This time, his actions had a repercussion.

The mechanical creature paused at Ted's voice.

And then suddenly the head turned _all the way around _to focus green orbs behind monstrous goggles at him, it's very human like face closing its lips around its sharp bronze teeth in its mouth…and Ted Wiggins screamed at the horrifying sight.

Now he understood the warnings, now he knew he was a little bit too lost, a little bit more than he should have been.

Now, he was panicking.


	2. Between You and Me

_(_**Warning, the chapters tend to pick up right where the other left off.)**

_Chapter 2 'Between You and Me'_

Ted's arms jerked up to cover his face defensively as he stepped back, waiting for the thing to, to lunge and try to dismember him with those claws or, or something. It was a realistic thought—those eyes behind those goggles were _intense_ alright? Those so sharp jaws even more so, who in their right mind built something like this!

The mechanical man's body clicked and hissed, Ted peeked through his arms to see the head…turning back around? Not lunging with inhuman speed? Not raking its claws into his flesh and gouging out his eyeballs? Slowly, much slower than even the robot was moving, Ted's arms started to lower carefully, watching.

No it was not appearing to attack. Or even appear threatening. No, the robot was, it was getting off the desk carefully, focused on its task. Getting up took only a moment, and then it was moving again, this time all at once, not just turning limbs 180 degrees like the head had gone.

It turned around, the great desk still between them.

Ted was lowering his arms all the way down before he realized it.

The robot was just…standing there. Staring. Not, not vacantly, no, Ted would have almost preferred that, to this inquisitive, intelligent stare that those bright green optics were giving him. God it was…it was realistic and smart and thinking.

Ted stared back.

"…h-hello?" He tried, voice sounding timid in the dark vastness workshop/office they were in. The small green glow of its eyes vanished, than appeared again. A blink.

"Uh….I'm, I'm Ted. Ted Wiggins—" Those eyes focused on him and the body stilled more, was it _thinking_? Processing what he was saying maybe? "And thank you for not eating me or something." Ted had the nerve to look sheepish, and wow if the robot didn't smile a tiny bit, not cruelly but…understanding?

Robots couldn't understand, could they? Well, not in such a comprehensive way as knowing what 'not being eaten meant.' Unless it was programmed that way.

Still. "Can you…talk?"

Another blink. Recognition, but….not exactly an answer.

"You know, words? Uh, speak?" The robot's lips twisted a bit comically and it raised an eyebrow. Ted huffed and tried to answer according to the thing's facial expressions.

"So you can't talk. Great."

Okay, new plan. That had to somehow involve an automaton and a seed for Audrey and… "You don't, happen to be the Once-Ler do you?" Ted tried again.

The robot's head tilted, the goggles zooming in and out at odd intervals as its body tick-tocked away. Abruptly the machine turned around and stepped away, taking long strides with a purposeful glance behind it, and Ted's eye widened. "H-hey, wait—"

It didn't wait.

It slowed down its walk at the far end of a corner of the room Ted had yet to explore, and really the only thing even remotely interesting on this side of the room was the large frame with an old painting stuck in it. There were gears on the side of the frame that looked like they might have moved a few years ago, with some tender love and a lot of oil. Now though…

Well now, just like the rest of this place, it looked awful.

With one long, clawed pointer finger, the automaton pointed at the painting in the frame. Ted squinted his eyes in the awful light and leaned closer, look hard and thinking harder.

"That, that looks like you." Ted stared at the portrait closely, trying to look past the aged and chipped paint. The face stared down with a tiny, unsure smile back at him, the lips closed. The eyes weren't glowing like they were now, but maybe the artist had taken it upon himself to make this, this thing appear as human as possible for whatever reason. There was another figure in the portrait, but age and poor grime placement had all but eaten through the canvas and only the backing was visible. And there were other painting too, or what had once been them, now all of them except the one the automaton was pointing to was destroyed.

"…so….you ARE the Once-Ler." Again he got that look. But Ted frowned and pointed up. "That looks just like you though!" Here he was, trying to talk to a mute robot about its name. Who's shoulders moved oddly at his outburst and Ted's disappointed frown grew.

"Okay well, so maybe your memory's all glitch, that's possible right? Do you remember uh, things and stuff?" The robot tilted its head and turned around to look at the rest of room, again, as if scanning and sweeping to find some piece of itself that it knew irrevocably and that could explain everything it needed to. Again, its search was fruitless, and the robot focused back on Ted with a blank stare.

"Uh, this is going to sound strange," Not as strange as finding a mute robot but whatever, "but do you have, or do you know where I can get a seed?"

Another head tilt.

Ted tried again, but he was starting to get the feeling he was doing something wrong. Maybe you needed to write things down and stick them in its mouth for it to work or something. "You know, a seed? For a Truffula? A…Truffula Tree?"

And suddenly…it turned away from him, making almost most plaintive whine that came from whatever was in its throat. It was the most responsive thing Ted had seen the machine do since standing up and it surprised him. And confused him so so _so_ bad.

"But…you ARE the Once-Ler? That's your name, right? And you **don't** know where to find a seed? Boy, Granny sure got this story mixed up, wait till I'll tell her—" Ted was too busy turning around in exasperation to see the robot's look of slight annoyance. He also failed to see that he was stepping over less than healthy wooden floorboards, years of oil and mold having eaten away the foundation of the floor under him.

"—and it's not like anyone's gonna believe that I found, uh, _you_ this far out of to_OWWWN_!"

Ted yelped as his stomach leapt to his throat as the suddenly groaning floor gave way beneath his sneakers, his flailing hand jerking up to latch onto what remained of the floor that had yet to give away, ohmygod ohmygod ohmyGOD-! He hung there for what seemed like a month but was mostly all of two seconds, swinging precariously from his grip, trying not to think of the painful digging sensation, knowing that if he fell into this black abyss that was the basement or something he'd end up with a broken leg, and a mute robot that couldn't call for help even if it wanted too, and no seed for Audrey and—

Today was just a horrible day okay!

More of the moldy wood that used to be a floor in front of Ted fell away and landed with a lame smack as it hit the ground far below. The fact there was a bottom did little to comfort the panicking boy, and just as he resigned himself to his fate and screwed his eyes shut to wait for the impact…a cold grip settled on his wrist and lifted him with much more strength than anything should be capable of.

Ted blinked and looked up at the green orbs gazing down at him, the machine frowning just a tiny bit, eyebrows creased in worry. "H-hey!" Once-Ler said nothing.

The hand—the gloved one, thank god—tightened and lifted him higher, gears turning with tiny noises, finally opening its hand when Ted's sneakers hit the sturdier part of the floorboards.

Ted gasped a little and turned to look at the gaping wide hole he'd just been in, when he finally realized had a hand over his heart he lowered it, feeling foolish.

"Uhm…thanks. Again." He added because he felt like he had to. The automaton only turned to inspect the mess in the floor with a tiny scowl, but it didn't look like Ted was in trouble with it, so….well that was a relief.

"…Once-Ler? Mister Once-Ler?" he tried.

Nothing. Ted frowned a little.

"Huh…okay that's a problem I guess." That earned him a questioning look. The boy shrugged and scratched his chin as he spoke aloud.

"Well…you're not a very good robot, if you don't answer to your name, right?" Ted mused as he looked the mechanical man over once more.

Again, the robot did nothing more than turn away and settle his eyes on something else. If Ted didn't know any better, he'd say the bot looked…_depressed_, with a hint of exasperation. The way its eyebrows knitted and its lips twitched and its shoulders shrugged almost helplessly.

Jeez, this thing was so…advanced.

Ted sighed and…felt like giving up. This was a waste of time, even if it was super cool.

He turned and headed back the way he'd came. Ted stopped dead at the sound of clanking metal following behind him. He whipped his head back, turning to see the robot looking down at him, giving him another quizzical look; it had been right on his heels.

"I, uh, okay. Yeah, okay." Ted mumbled to it, feeling slightly dazed, but that might have been because of the fumes of this place. He turned around the walk forward, flinching a little every time the robot stepped after him. He had no idea why it was following him like a hound, but he wasn't about to ask. Wasn't like he'd get an answer. Ted still had yet to explore a room off of the work shop he noticed, so that's where he went next, hoping against all odds that he'd still find what he'd originally come for. He stepped carefully now, looking down, self-aware that his own weight was enough to cave in parts of the floor, so the automaton—which had to be much heavier, even if it was so tall and thin—would do worse to the floor and possibly injure itself. Ted didn't, didn't want _that_.

The next room he entered was the front of the Lerkim Ted guessed. It was wide and the most opne space yet, with what looked like counters and what might have been a stove and cupboards above them.

"Huh. So this is the kitchen, right?" He asked the machine behind him, which nodded and moved out from behind him, clanking steadily over to a far side of the room and past an old tipped over table. Again the automaton paused for a while, looking this way and that. Ted opened his mouth to ask it just what it was looking for in a crummy old mess like this, only for the machine to stop its searching abruptly and make a hissing noise than ended with a chirp, the green dots narrowing in on something.

"What is it? Something over there?" Ted walked up to him, eyes focusing to see the gap in front of them with some still holding on floorboards that bridged the gap between the kitchen and the rest of the house. "Ohh wow, okay that is NOT safe."

The robot sagged, gears whirring. Ted cast him a sympathetic look, "I mean c'mon, look at that mess, the floors sagged right through….you're lucky you're not down there." The boy leaned over and took a long hard look into the abyss below. "'Course I'm kind of lucky too."

"No way we're getting over there," Ted muttered to his new friend as he pulled back. The android suddenly whined as its optics shrank as it focused on something over in the corner of what remained of the kitchen.

"Huh, what is it?" Ted tried to see too. He was given another clunking noise of discontent and apparent want, as Once-Ler jerked its head and made a sputter of noise like an indignant child might.

Ted pointed at the thing the automaton seemed to be focusing on mostly. "That old…that old barrel…? You want the barrel?" Finally, a response, a nod. An eager nod to be precise, the eyes lit up. A hand came up and lifted the goggles back to rest on its head, and finally the boy was given a clear look at those eyes, the bright glow to them that illuminated whatever it was facing, darkening every time it blinked. It turned to him and crooned again, dangerous teeth snapping and opening shut as it pointed to the barrel.

"Ah, jeez okay, okay!" Ted laughed softly and raised a hand to cover his face from the light, "I'll get it, hang on." He found himself assuring the robot, because it just felt like the right thing to do, he owed the machine this much after it had saved his sorry behind.

The glowing eyes widened in slight wonder as Ted made his way carefully across the remaining beams, using the wall as a strong support and scampering quickly, thankful he was so light or this could have ended badly. He finally _finally_ made it, with the robot behind him mostly giving him enough light to at least tiptoe by, did the boy place his hands on the barrel and inspect it. …something was stamped in huge letters on the side, but it was too tough to make out. This must have been where they stored…barrels of things, in this corner of the room. There was no telling what else they had that most likely had fallen when the floor caved in. He sighed and tipped the medium size barrel on its side. There were larger very empty barrels scattered around it, with an oily air hanging around them. Oh…the robot, wanted the oil then. Ted blinked and suddenly wished he'd thought to bring along a pair of gloves. He was filthy and he probably smelled worse and mother was going to _kill_ him.

"Hey!" He looked up, calling over to the automaton. "I think I can roll it over, but it's kind of a small plank so I'm not sure—where are you going? Once-Ler, come back!" The robot ignored him again and turned a corner Ted hadn't noticed before. And then Ted was alone.

"…uh…" Well this was awkward.

The sound of straining metal and a sharp wooden snapping sound met Ted's ears and he nearly tipped over the barrel in surprise as a long plank of wood bobbed around the corner, held in the robots arm as easily as if it were carrying a toothpick. Once-Ler took no time in setting it across next to the plank Ted had walked across, it was just long enough to reach without a strain, and it nearly doubled the width of the path Ted had to take.

"…well jeez when you put it like that," Ted started to guide the barrel on its side over the planks, the automaton's eyes on the rolling item the entire time as if entranced. Steam hissed from between its lip as Ted made it fully across and it gurgled, making a sharp metallic noise that might have been as sound of happiness almost. Ted smiled softly and with the eager robot's help, managed to right it and get the top off.

"So what are you going to do with—whoa hang on there big guy!" The automaton lifted it up in both hands and tipped it back and began pouring small amounts straight into its mouth, exhaust trickling from its nostrils for a second as it drank.

"Huh, guess you were hungry. Or thirsty. Or…something." The boy chuckled as Once-Ler went to town on the oil, everything in it started sounding smoother, better, random squeaking slowed and the body grunted as it worked on sucking down that entire barrel. This day was turning out to be too strange, and a little too much of an adventure…he didn't even have a seed yet!

Finally Ted could make out the faded stamp on the side of the barrel as the bot drank, he craned his head over to read the word as the robot chugged away, not sparing even a tiny amount to escape those bronze colored jaws.

'Greed…Ler.'" Ted read aloud.

The guzzling stopped. The barrel lowered.

The robot smiled an oily grin of sharp teeth and made a sharp sound of eagerness and nodded eagerly.

"Greed-Ler?" The nodding increased, gears moving as joints did. Ted blinked, piecing clues together in his mind. "You're…Greed-Ler."

The robot's smile grew.


	3. Strangeness and Charm

_Chapter 3 'Strangeness and Charm' _

"Well I guess this is…goodbye." He stood by the back door with a small smile as the Greed-Ler automaton stood before him, head tilted as he listened to the boy, goggles back on and only his flat line mouth to read expressions from.

"Uh, so, bye." He repeated again lamely, before giving the bot his back and turning the knob, stepping out. He flinched when he heard steps behind him—Greed-Ler had finished the oil barrel and as soon as Ted had stepped away to try and gets his bearings in the rest of the house, the automaton had taken up to following along steadily behind him. From the kitchen back to the study, from the study to a tentative few steps up the stairs. Ted had retreated when he realized the stairs were creaking ominously and were lucky to still be holding Ted's weight, let alone the robot that would follow behind him. The boy had grimaced, headed back the way he'd came and had caught the time off his watch in a stray beam of light coming through the boarded up windows.

6:35 at night. Crap. He had to get home while there was still a house with a roof—praying Grammy Norma had managed to distract his mother from his five minute tardiness. He'd most likely have to try and break the sound barrier getting back, but it was worth it.

Ted smiled uneasily as he headed for door, not even surprised when he heard metal noises behind him that gave away Greed-Ler was following after him. _'Don't look, don't turn around, that'd only encourage him, right?' _Ted mantras to himself as his sneakers hit the steps and…and the clacking stops when Ted steps onto the hard earth of the wasteland.

This earns Greed-Ler a look, Ted can't help but turn around and see what the automaton's up to because the silence of it not following him after doing it for so long is startling, and oh…Ted sees the problem right away.

Greed-Ler doesn't want to cross the threshold and leave the actual Lerkim. The machine was hesitant and in fact seemed a tad uneasy over such a notion. Its legs had locked firmly in place and the bot looked almost bashfully away. The boy's eyebrows scrunch a little because that was kind of sad, actually.

"Uh….hey, you okay?" The machine garbled a bit, and shook its head. It stared pleadingly down at him and Ted almost felt his resolve vanish but—no, no he had to go!

"I'm, I'm sorry Greed-Ler but I really have to go, my mom'll kill me if I'm any later and..." he trailed off lamely when he saw the look on the mechanical's man's face. The automaton didn't really seemed to understand his urgency—and the Ted had the inkling that even it did it wouldn't care anyway. Greed-Ler refused to cross the threshold, but he also kept looking to and from the floor to Ted, eyes all but pleading. Ted smiled a little sadly as he grabbed his helmet. No, he hadn't found a seed but…

He was starting to get the notion that maybe he'd found something better than that. And there was still time anyway, to keep searching the Lerkim with Greed's help for a seed, right?

"Hey, look, I'll be back tomorrow okay?" Ted waved in goodbye without thinking about it. The robot didn't look convinced; it gave a huff of exhaust and shifted in place, gears clicking softly as it watched the boy's every move.

"Aw c'mon don't be like that…okay I _promise_ I'll be back buddy, okay? We'll look for more oil and everything, okay?" Ted urged as he revved the engine.

Finally, painstakingly, the automaton lifted its gloved hand like Ted had done and tried to mimic his small good bye wave with one of its own. What it got was its fingers opening and closing and the wrist shifting from side to side. Ted grinned—this robot was so smart!

"Yeah, exactly! Bye-bye!" He waved again dramatically so Greed-Ler could see before finally heading off the way he'd came, down the Street of the Lifted Lorax.

**oOo**

Greed-Ler watched the small human's retreating back for as far as his goggles would focus so as not to lose sight of Ted Wiggins, as he'd called himself. Soon nothing was left but the dust and the dark and himself beneath this bad looking sky…and he wasn't sure he enjoyed such a thing.

He closed the door and stood there a moment longer, processing what had happened over and over again. Awakening …awakening and finding that child behind him, who must've been the one to activate him, because there was no one else here…And that made the robot frown a tiny bit.

Because that wasn't _right_, it knew somehow, internally. Something said that Someone was always here, Someone was always taking care of him and vice verse. Where had his Someone gone then? His Creator?

Who would take care of him now?

And, more importantly, the robot mused as it headed back to sit on the desk and wait for the boy's return, who would HE take care of?

**oOo**

"…are you sure about this? You're not sure about this, are you." Ted moaned from the rafter he was currently balanced upon. The light from below him was from Greed-Ler's luminescent eyes staring upward at him. The teeth clanked in what Ted supposed meant to be reassuring; it only made him more wary that if he possibly lost his balance he'd be heading for the arms of a very hard robot and one of those arms ended in a wicked set of claws. Greed's concern was there and while that was nice of it Ted couldn't over look the vision of broken bones as a result of a crash-landing.

"…go check out the attic he says, it'll be FUN he says, I'm starting to think coming back was a bad idea—" An indignant and hurt squeak of gears interrupted him. "Just kidding, just kidding!" He couldn't help but smile as he looked back down at the automaton. It had seemed REALLY eager to see him when he'd pulled up, meeting him at the door with bright eyes and body whirring in almost a cheerful manner.

Ted sighed and raised his head to look over at his destination and started edging toward it slowly. An attic. Sort of. Well, Ted wasn't sure what was behind the slightly small doors or why they were there, but then that was why he up here in the first place.

That and…he glanced down at the clanking metal body below him as Greed-Ler followed his every move…Greed had all but begged and pointed and whined like a child as he jabbed a claw up at the loft space. And that had all lead up to Ted current state of lying with his stomach down on a rafter that lead to the crawl space, because the ladder that was lying against the wall to get up to it had about 6 broken rungs and looked less promising than this sturdy, albeit high, rafter.

"Okay." The boy clinging like a spider-monkey to the roof beam took a big breath and looked at his target across the way. "Here goes…something…" he grunted as he started shimmying over.

_Clank clank clank_. Went Greed-Ler as it walked under him, staring upward and lighting his way. Until Ted met his destination and slid back the door back with an outstretched hand, its hinges creaking in protest at the treatment. He abandoned his rafter in favor for the more solid expanse of wood in front of the loft and stuck his head in, then paused and pulled it back out, looking down into the bright green lights pointed up at him like beacons.

"I'm almost there, okay, if you can't see me I'll be out in a second, alright?" Ted called down. The robot's eyes narrowed but opened again and it nodded. Ted took that as a 'roger Wilson' and ventured forth into the dark space, glad he'd thought to pack some this morning before sneaking out.

"…oh, huh…" Ted mumbled, hands pressing into the turned wood and turning one sideways. "Well…" and because he wasn't comfortable swearing yet, said only. "Jeez."

A long drawn out garble of metallic noises from below. Ted had no idea what they meant _exactly_, but they sounded like they might end a with question mark. He took a chance and answered with:

"…it's, it's a whole bunch of barrels Greed-Ler!" Ted called back, laying a hand on one of them. "Tons! As far back as I can see, its super dark though….looks like their all oil...I hope." And yes okay, that noise from below could only be described as delight, the automaton was ecstatic over such a find! Ted laughed and backed out a bit to see the automaton's expression, its copper teeth shinning as it all but giggled and nodded.

"Not sure how we're gonna get them all down though…do you think I could lower them down to you and you could grab them?" Nod, nod, nod. Screech, screech, screech. Oh, sounded like Greed-Ler was running less than well like he was earlier. Ted suddenly didn't blame him for wanting that oil. And at the boy's suggestion, those eyes literally lightened up and the mechanical man made all but grabby hands for the first barrel. Ted chuckled some more and ducked in, scooting back to allow for the room the barrel took up before he tipped it over and held it down to his new friend, taking great care not over balance.

"Gnhh—Ya, ya got it?" he grunted from the effort. A sharp singular clicking noise. _Yes!_ Ted let go.

The barrel remained in the air until Greed-Ler gently lowered the weight like it was nothing. Ted grinned and went back for another barrel. His smile slipped when he realized…all these barrels and still not one seed. Oh, oh well. That was okay, right? He was helping someone out…right?

Ted sighed a little heavily as he handed down the second barrel…and the third…fourth…fifth…

Fifteen barrels later, and this room off of the study was nothing but dank and filled with barrels of smelly oil and Ted was back on the ground floor, collapsed onto the musty, saggy couch. Greed-Ler sitting stiffly next to him from where it had tried to mimic Ted's tired flop. The boy finally removed his arm from in front of his eyes when he heard the robot croon questioningly in what he supposed was his direction.

"Whassat? Yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay." He tried to sit up, but only ended up leaning against the machine's left side and groaning a little. God that had been hard work and now Ted was exhausted and a bit sore to be honest, his arms felt like rubber after all that lowering and straining, not to mention heavy breathing was discouraged in a musty old place like this. The bot did not move and remained patiently still, and for that Ted was grateful.

"Are you gonna be set for a while? If you only drink one a day I mean?" Ted finally asked.

Greed-Ler's gears ticked softly as he nodded. He'd already downed one…and he sounded and moved better all ready. That was a relief to Ted, no matter how tired he was, at least his friend wasn't going to suddenly break down or stop working on him again, plus Ted wasn't sure where to find all that stuff again to make him run.

Ted wondered, a little vaguely, just when he'd started referring to the machine as a 'he.'

Oh well.

"I'm super glad I threw a sandwich in my bag before I left." The boy muttered tiredly as his eyes fluttered. He did not notice the automaton's head turn in his direction as it listened; at this point Teddy was so tired he was talking out loud. "It's almost 1:30, too, wow. Been here for like…three hours…" Ted found that his time between closing his eyes and opening them again got longer and longer, the soft tick-tocking noise that the robot he was sitting next to was really lulling and kind of nice, actually.

"I'll eat it…then I'll…"

But what Ted was going to do after he ate his sandwich he didn't get to say, because at that point he'd fallen asleep, turning to bury his nose into the soft cloth on the robot's shoulder.

**oOo**

This was familiar, Greed-Ler knew. This had to be, it made so much sense. Falling asleep against him like this, the automaton spared the boy a glance and made a slight face. If he was going to exhaust himself so much, he shouldn't have pushed his human body to help Greed-Ler obtain all that oil…still, Greed-Ler would be lying to himself if he'd said it wasn't a good comfort to know he'd be able to keep himself running for a good while.

This human—Ted—had provided him with one of the most precious things Greed-Ler needed to survive. Well that was interesting. Ted had taken care of him then, right? That's what that meant.

Greed-Ler's bright green eyes glided over and he did a room search for the human's backpack that he had arrived with.

'Sandwich.' Ted had said. His memory files brought up both the term 'marshmellow sandwiches' and a sound byte file of _"Greed, did you make me this sandwich? Wow, thanks pal!" _The automaton blinked and smiled a little bit. He enjoyed hearing that sound byte, he played it again just to hear the voice over.

That settled the robot's mind, and Greed-Ler took great pains to extract his body from the boy's and lay him carefully down lengthwise on the cushions. Ted didn't do much more than curl up and mumble a little in his sleep. The automaton recognized this action too, and understood that after this moment happened that it was his turn to remove his coat and drape it carefully over the boy because humans needed warmth most of the time to be comfortable…and so Greed-Ler did just that.

Satisfied the small human's immediate needs were taken care of; Greed-Ler went off in search of the boy's backpack so that his 'sandwich' would be waiting for him when he awoke.

It was quite simple, you see. He would take care of Ted Wiggins because Ted Wiggins had taken care of him.

He was, after all, a 'helper-bot.'


	4. My Funny Friend and Me

_Chapter 4 'My Funny Friend and Me'_

"Greed-ler? Have you seen my hoodie I left with my…back….pack." Ted trailed off lamely as he stared at his robotic friend from the doorway. Greed-Ler looked up at the sound of his voice and stared blankly back for a second, then his lips split into a copper grin and held up a lumpy, dust covered piece of cloth that might have, at one time or another, resembled a hoodie.

"…" Greed-Ler blinked and a curious burst of static escaped his lips. He held the hoodie up a bit higher from the desk, as if perhaps Ted hadn't seen his hard work.

"Of course." Ted gave a weary half smile and covered the side of his face with his hand as he looked over Greed's dusting. "You were using it to clean, right?" A sharp pitched whirr of machinery that Ted could only take for a 'yes!' and when Greed saw that lazy half smile from the boy he took this as a sign that he was doing good and swiped the hoodie over the half clean desk again, Ted just laughed quietly because if he didn't laugh he'd probably break down into tired tears and cry.

They'd been at this house cleaning for two days already, and so far only half the kitchen had been uncovered and some of the furniture in the workshop slash office had been…moved. Organized. (If you could call Greed picking up a table and throwing it out a window 'cleaning,' then yes, Ted supposed they were doing a great job cleaning.) And still, no seed.

Greed called for him again, tilting his head at the desk as if wanting Ted's inspection.

"Yep, you're doing a great job cleaning up; seriously…you're a huge help pal." He patted the automaton's shoulder absentmindedly as he walked past the bot, who chirped and started…making various short and long metallic noises as he bent back over his work. Was he…was Greed humming? Ted shook his head with a fond smile and made his way into the kitchen, searching for the dust pan and broom they'd found in the storage closet in the hall. The pan was thick and metal and…homemade, and the broom looked like it had been eaten by something a long time ago, but it did the trick and Ted wasn't about to complain. Neither was Greed-Ler, who, once he had seen Ted start sweeping what dust he could off the floor and out the front door, had taken to mimicking his house work carefully and with utmost care.

"If we can get this place just a little more livable for you Greed-Ler, I wouldn't feel so bad about having to leave you here alone when I go home." Ted bit his lip and swept the area around the large desk that Greed was still swiping the top of with Ted's poor defenseless hoodie, papers rustling to the floor as he moved around. The bot gathered several papers and stacked them, scanned them for a split second and made a noise, then separated a few and turned to dispose of the ones he was still carrying into the trash bin next to Ted. The automaton sure seemed to know what he was doing suddenly. An old weathered document fluttered to Ted's feet and when he saw a blur of text he startled and almost dropped the broom when recognized who it was addressed to. Greed's large clawed hand swept into view to grab the paper but Ted cried "Wait!" and that earned him a dubious glance.

Ignoring his friend, Ted leaned down and grabbed the fragile paper himself, which turned out to be too faded to read in most places. Still Ted narrowed his eyes and gave it his best shot.

"Shipments ending….stocks down….we're sorry to inform you Mister Once-ler sir but your company is no longer….something something…closing your fact—h-hey, Greed-Ler!" The page had been ripped from his hand and the automaton was shaking his head, more forcefully than Ted had ever seen him, and that raised more concern than reading about some closing factory ever could.

"Greed give that back please—"

"Rrrnnnh." Went Greed-ler in a low mumble. 'No.' is what he clearly meant. Ted frowned a little and made a face. But the bot wasn't backing down; in fact he looked miserable over the whole thing as he scanned the page for himself and then whined sadly, gears tick-tocking.

"…hey what's wrong buddy?" The boy probed the robot gently. "Are you….are you upset about this letter? Is that it?" Greed-ler warbled and _looked away._

"Aw hey, c'mon I'm sorry, I, didn't mean too—" The automaton crooned and shook it's head, goggles sliding back to focus on him. But he did take back the paper and rip it in half. Ted jumped and blinked….then smiled and nodded. "Okay, yeah, right. That's…the past is in the past, right?" Ted gave in as he went back to sweeping and failed to see Greed-ler's slow, calculating look at him, that green gaze searching.

"I mean it must have sucked, though. Still…what happened, happened, and we can only work better so the future isn't so messed up, right? At least, that's what my mom always told me," Ted shrugged his shoulders with a shy grin as he focused on the floor under his sneakers. "I figure she's right about that stuff…she usually is."

Slowly, Greed-ler nodded, lips set together.

Teddy simply continued sweeping for a while longer, as Greed-ler went about moving and lifting anything heavy out of his way. Unfortunately the desk hadn't been entirely cleared for whatever reason so when Greed braced his hand and claw under the aged furniture he failed to notice a couple forgotten ink bottles that went tipping over and crashing to the floor, startling both boy and bot and sending the desk crashing back down onto its legs.

"Yikes! What was that, I, oh, geez…" Ted leaned down as the ink spread under the desk and grimaced. "…what a mess." He mumbled. A sad metallic croon interrupted his thoughts and Ted looked back up to see Greed towering sadly over him, normally bright optics dimmed and lightly _oranged_ in what Ted guessed as sadness and remorse. And oh god the bot's kind of pouting—Ted's eyes widened and he blinked.

"Ah, hey Greed-ler it's okay! Look it was an accident, right? You didn't do it on purpose right?" A shake of the head. "Then see, no harm done, okay?" Ted smiled a bit and got down on his hands and knees to gather a bottle that had rolled away in a bid for freedom.

"Here, we'll just pick this stuff up too, okay? It's totally fine…" Ted trailed off as he peered around the shadowy areas under the front of the desk to see if a bottle had rolled over there too.

Apparently comforted, the automaton smiled a tiny bit and nodded, before reaching down to scoop up an empty bottle under the space below the desk. Unfortunately he grasped it in his claw and tried to stand up _before_ backing out and—_**THUNK**_! "Gah-!" Ted yelped and sat back as the desk jerked from the strength at which Greed had hit it.

CLANK! Silence, then a low, tiny groan of discomfort. Ted jumped a mile and rushed over to help the automaton off its knees. "The heck! Greed-ler, are you okay? Say some—"

_WHHHIIIRRRRR_ Went something inside the automaton's body as Greed jerked up and clutched his head, whining. This only served to scare Ted more; who yelped when Greed literally started going _clickclickclickclick_ like something was starting up quickly.

The bot's head lifted abruptly up and its eyes snapped open, bright white in place of the usual intelligent green optics, and Ted stepped back for one frightened moment.

"Greed, _what_—" Greed-ler just mechanically faced a blank wall and opened his eyes wider. And then the glow illuminated the musty wall in a square shaped box of light. Ted gaped. Was it…was that a projection?

The box faded to a slightly gray colored green complete with an elegant dark green border. In the corner was a small display that read various levels of numbers that Ted supposed meant something to someone who knew anything and a half about mechanics.

The screen fizzled and corrected itself a couple times, then a picture orientated on the screen and went _3….2…1…._ Greed-ler beeped! shrilly, and a movie began playing…sort of. Well it was giving it its best effort, Ted had a feeling Greed was older than he looked.

A man's face swam into view, worriedly hunched close to whatever it was that had recorded this movie…it looked like it might have been Greed-ler doing the recording, actually, Ted surmised with a closer look, he could see a room behind the dark-haired man's mop but not very clearly. The man's lips moved soundlessly for a moment, then a fizzle was heard and—

"_Is it….is it recording? Greed is your audio work—"_ A familiar mechanical grumble came from the now motionless automaton beside him so loud that Ted jumped and looked over at the bot for a moment. The robot's lips were closed though, so that must have come from the movie, right? The man's voice brought Ted's eyes back to the screen though. _"Oh, okay good! Okay here we go—" _

The man pulled back, giving Ted a good view of his face and chest and Ted watched the man wave sheepishly at the recording. _"Uh, hi there." _The young man cleared his throat and seemed to gather himself.

"_If you're seeing this, it means you've found—and activated my helper bot—named Greed-ler. Don't ask, it's a nickname, but it stuck and it's all he responds to now. Anyway, I wanted to say, one: congratulations for coming out here, though I have no idea why you must be __**nuts**__—" _"Hey!" Ted said to the screen, and the man went on, of course.

"_And two…because you knew to give Greed-Ler's his start up pieces, the money and the nail and shell—you must have some idea about what you're getting yourself into, right?"_

And Ted brightened up; maybe this guy was going to tell him how to get a seed!

"_Well, to that I can only say…wow. Just wow_." The man shrugged and sighed gently._ "And that I wish…I could help you more. But I can't."_ Ted's heart sank._ "I'm really, I mean I'm really no good for anyone anymore, not after the last tr—anyway. The point is…I didn't leave this message here just to say good luck. I'm doing this because I want to make sure he's taken care of." _Ted blinked and suddenly felt more interested than before for some reason. Was this guy talking about…?

"_You see I'm, I'm the Once-ler, and I __**made**__ Greed-ler, from scratch. He's my invention, he's my…he's my best friend." _A flicker of…pride? Affection? Flittered across the Once-ler's face. _"But he is, and always will be, my greatest creation. Not because of what he can do or how he runs, but because of he acts and how…amazing a person he is, okay? Now by the time anyone reads this I will be long…gone, because I can't, I just can't be here anymore. But Greed-ler, Greed-ler deserves better than where I'm headed. That's why I'm shutting him down and leaving him for someone who cares enough to find him, and if, if someone never does well…" _the man's brows furrowed and looked away. _"Then maybe that's better for him too."_

The Once-ler suddenly shook off the sad emotion and smiled slightly._ "I, sorry, don't mean to ramble but…okay, well, now that YOU'RE here….now that Greed-ler's…yours, essentially—"_ _**"Mine!"**_ Ted's yelp went unnoticed. "—_you gotta know his basics, okay?"_

Ted sighed but nodded a little and made himself comfy on the desk Greed was standing in front of. "Okay, lemme have it." He spoke to the screen.

"_Now he might be kinda stubborn sometimes, but occasionally he's doing it because he has a reason, so don't, don't always write him off as being difficult. Ask him, and if you can't figure out what he's saying, or trying to, check in my toolbox under the desk for a list of the noises he makes and what he usually means when he makes them."_

"_He's a helper bot, it's what he does best. If he wants to help, let him. Giving him a task isn't insulting him—but even if he gets confused or doesn't do it just right, well, that's okay. Mistakes are meant to be made, right?"_ Ted glanced at his ruined hoodie in a corner of the room and smiled a tiny bit.

"_I've fixed a lot of his…bugs…but if he ever starts acting funny, there's a guide book for fixing most of his continuous problems in the bottom desk drawer on the left, the directions and what tools you'll need to fix him are in there too. Only let him drink one barrel of oil a day, he's gotten a bit better about that so he shouldn't give you much trouble. There's a lot left in the supply loft above the sitting room—ask Greed-Ler, he'll show you where it is." _

"Waaaay ahead of you on that Mister Once-Ler" Ted gave a lazy two thumbs up to the recording as he felt tired arm muscles sting gently.

This next part got Ted's attention best of all though.

"_Greed-ler knows so, so much more about the world than he did when I first started him up. But he's still always learning, just like WE always will be. He might get disgruntled or tired, and he may try and tax you, but he always means well. He's also…just, take my word for it,"_ The Once-ler's fond smile slipped off to reveal a tired sternness. "_Greed-ler watches things __**closely**__. Very closely. And he knows what to watch for."_ Ted blinked a little and raised an eyebrow curiously, wondering what the Once-ler met. Watching…? For what?

"_But I promise, treat him nicely, respect him, and Greed'll do the exact same for you, okay? He may not look it but he understands a lot now, the rights and wrongs, the do's and don'ts." _

"_I'm leaving him here…with you, whoever finds him."_ The Once-ler's smile was suddenly sad, his eyes downcast. _"So please…take care of him, he means, he means everything to me. He's all I've got left."_ The inventor looked away, sighing tiredly, muttering something that sounded like _"…even if I don't deserve him…"_ Before the Once-ler looked back at Greed-ler, and so his face came into full view. This made Ted give a small glance to the robot at this side, who's shoulder he had seen sag a bit and Ted reached out to pat the automaton in what he hoped was a comforting manner.

"_And hey, one more thing to remember, whoever you are." _Ted turned back to the screen, only to find Once-ler's face seriously grave and…heartbreaking

"_Unless. Unless someone like you, cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better." _The quality of the movie started to blink out but audio stayed perfectly smooth as the Once-Ler reached toward Greed-ler and around him._ "It's not." _

The room went black. The recording had ended.

A pair of green dots hit the wall where the movie had once been and suddenly swiveled down to look at Ted, who glanced back up at him.

"Did you hear all that buddy?" Ted asked softly. Greed-Ler nodded once, body whirring quietly.

"…looks like it's just you and me for a while then…." Ted murmured quietly.

Greed-ler took this in for a moment, and then nodded too, but a bit more despondently than before.


	5. Books and Letters

Chapter 5 'Books and Letters'

"Heeey Greedler, where areeee you?" Ted called as he tiptoed through the living room in the dark, grinning like the Cheshire cat as he cast around for the nearly 6 ft tall robot, (7 if he wore his hat) peering into dark corners and pulling a face when they were revealed to be empty.

Any other time, hide-and-seek was a childish, juvenile game that was below a young _man_ only days away from having to shave, (and not years, like a certain mother of his would tell you,) such as Ted. However, when you had a robot that could play it so freaking well in an old house like this place, well…

"Ah-HAH!" Ted flung himself around a corner to find-

The dust mop sitting innocently in the corner.

"…Huh." The 13 year old made a face and rubbed his chin in thought, looking around. "I was sure I saw the glow of his eyes…"

Okay, they'd been playing for over 3 hours, and Greed was 4 out of 7 games. The bot always found him before the alarm on Ted's cell phone went off, walking quicker as time progressed in his hurry to locate Ted, as though afraid he might _really _disappear.

That gave the young boy a thought, one he knew was sneaky yes, but consider it pay back for the time Greedler had hid behind him and dropped his large claw onto his shoulder to see if he could get him to scream. (Hint: he had. Shrilly. It was hilarious.)

"OH WELL," Ted suddenly said loudly, "Can't find Greed-ler, guess he's lost! Forever! _Woe_ is me," Ted sniffed and backed up towards the door, placing his hand on the handle and turning it slowly, pushing open the door dramatically, the hinges squeaking loudly like they always did.

"Guess I have to go now, and leave!" Ted proclaimed into the house as he turned around, waiting a moment before clinching the deal. "And neeeever everrr come baaaac-ACK!" Ted was tackled from behind with a sharp squeak of gears and hugged almost painfully tight against the robot's body.

"G-Gah, Greed! It's okay buddy, I won't l-leave, ahahha, I p-promise!" Ted looked down at his feet dangling inches from the floor and glanced into those big green eyes staring at him, still smiling feebly to his best friend. "…can you put me down now? I won't run away…oh, by the way-"

His cell phone beeped shrilly, the 20 minute time slot was up. "I win!"

He landed in a heap on the floor, but he laughed harder. "Aww, c'mon," He said to the rather put-out looking robot, untangling his limbs and sitting up on his knees. "Hey don't be sore Greed! ...seriously I think it was the only way I was gonna win a game against you…" The robot's answer was an irritated squeak from its throat and a slight hiss.

Ted continued as if carrying a normal conversation with someone. "Yes, I understand hiding in the loft was a bad idea when it was my turn-but at least you found me! I had to look all over, everywhere, for you!" He flung his arms out to emphasize his point. "For like 18 minutes, and I _still_ couldn't find you!"

Greedler grinned, it didn't seem worth it to point out that no, Ted hadn't looked everywhere, because if he had he would have found the bot and won the game fairly, instead of having to resort to foul play. As it was the automaton lifted his head a little, clearly proud of his hide and seek skills.

"Tch, yeah, okay, go on and gloat, just remember," Ted held his phone out, "I won!"

Ted was given a playful shove that sent him stumbling four feet into a wall, but he was still laughing, the friendly gleam in the robot's eye said enough.

And this was how'd he spent the majority of the last week and a half. Passing summer days giving excuses to his mom and sneaking out early, backpack holding the essentials for the day as he took the long and slightly treacherous route to the Lerkim. A bright eyed, chirping Greedler greeted him at the door each time, ushering him inside so they could start cleaning or searching for the day.

Somewhere along the line, searching and cleaning usually ended with a tired Ted taking a nap or settling on the couch on his stomach and showing Greedler some of the comic books he'd brought along.

Today, in fact, they'd already played seven games of hide and seek, fumbled once through a game of chess with an old set they'd found, (Greed won by default, because Ted still didn't get that, no, the knights didn't go straight, they went over one and up two) and shined a few of the remaining windows.

With a happy sigh Ted flopped onto the couch, pulling out a book and a whole package of oreo's he'd snitched from the kitchen from his rucksack. Greedler saw this action and made another high pitched chirp, grinning and eyes lighting up when he saw the book, his teeth clanking happily.

"Huh?" Ted looked up, attention drawn to the bot hovering over him. "Oh yeah, ready?" Greedler sat down in front of him on the other cushion and nodded quickly. Ted grinned and set the book down before himself, kicking a leg in the air idly.

"Okay le'see, where were we…" Ted stuffed an Oreo between his teeth and hummed thoughtfully. Greed waited for a moment, and then he made a deep grinding noise and let smoke curl out between his teeth, pointing to the smoke and making an odd growling noise. Believe it or not, the action jogged the young boy's memory and he blinked.

"Huh-oh! Right, the dragon, okay, okay, here…chapter nineteen_, The __**Hungarian**__ Horntail_" Ted said the chapter name in a deep intense voice, grinning when Greedler made a noise and leaned forward excitedly.

"_The prospect of talking the face-to-face with Sirius was all that sustained Harry over the next fortnight…"_ Ted started, still munching on his Oreos and only pausing when Greedler left to get a bottle of oil Ted had poured for him, complete with funky swirly straw.

Turns out reading was something Greedler was quite capable of, he could even write well too, to the young boy's delight. But it was a few days ago that Greed had picked up his bookbag and a book had fallen out, a mechanical claw scooping the thick volume up as he clicked curiously at it for a moment, then opened it and leafed through. Ted had shrugged, stepped over and explained it was a book, a really good book actually about magic and stuff and then suddenly an open page was thrust in his face, the normal gloved finger pointing at the first line. Ted had read it out loud in a dubious voice, but the robot had straightened up and nodded, pointed to the second line…then the third, prompting Teddy to continue reading.

Finally, reading time was something Ted made sure to do every day, if only because the automaton got so into what they were reading, making startled noises or snorting in laughter in all the right places. The first day Ted talked till he was sore in the throat, the second he'd set a time limit, and eventually Greed had consented that yes, one hour of reading everyday was better than three hours with the next day of Ted coughing and making slightly pained faces.

Ted finished the chapter with time to spare, but he balked at starting another chapter, otherwise even he'd find it hard to stop reading.

"Well…I guess we could stop reading but-"

Greedler whined above him and pointed to Ted's cell phone clock. _Still have 30 minutes of reading time! _That intense look said. Ted laughed, "Well Greed, unless we start another book-"

"!" Went Greed as he stood up and headed off around a corner, leaving a boy blinking in his wake as he lay there on the couch.

"…uh, Greed? …pal?" Ted asked slowly and sat up a little, wondering if this was a glitch or-

The sound of hissing and clicking gears hit Ted's ears as the automaton returned and sat back down, looking quite proud as he…shoved a very worn and very odd looking book on top of Harry Potter.

"Huh? What's this?" The boy blinked, taking the book in his hands and undoing the thick leather tie that held it together. "Hm…" the cover was blank and dark green, but dusty and cracked with age and possibly poor storage. "Didn't see this on the shelves when we dusted yesterday, where'd you find this Greed?"

The robot clicked and chirped and generally just made some noise, most of which Ted basically forgot when he saw what was written on the front page.

"_This journal belongs to the Once-ler"_ with the Onceler being hand written and the first part a stamp on the inside of the book. Below that was one more thing, a short note in flowing cursive that said:

_'Dear Oncie,  
Good luck with Greed-ler, this is for keeping up with all the things you and him are going to do, all the amazing accomplishments and great moments, and the not so great ones too! Keep your chin up!_

_-Norma_

"You…want me to read this?" Ted asked, amazed.

One thing was for sure, this wasn't the handbook Onceler had mentioned in the video they'd seen a couple days ago, this wasn't anything Ted had come across during all their cleaning. Maybe the bot had just picked the book up at random, maybe their was a specific reason he'd brought him the journal now, it was hard to tell with Greedler. In either case, Ted didn't mind reading this, he was _crazy _curious.

"Well, okay…here goes." The boy leaned over the book and settled down as Greed did as well.

"_Day 1, my new creation, the semi-automatic mechanical helper-bot, has finally opened its eyes and blinked! This is a big step since the day before when it lashed out at a sudden noise and broke its left arm before I could run any sort of diagnostics. I had to immediately shut it down again for repairs. Good news is I made another arm in record time, bad news is its pretty rough looking,"_ Teddy took a moment to glance up at Greed's large clawed left hand and shrugged. At Ted's words the helper bot looked down and wiggled the 'rough' fingers. "Aww don't worry about it, it's cool, I like it." Greed grinned.

"_It needs goggles asap though, or I need to figure out how to turn down the optics."_ Ted shrugged and flipped a weather page. "Guess he left ya with bright eyes and wicked cool goggles," Greedler whirred happily and took off said goggles, setting them on Ted's head with a happy smirk. Ted laughed and pushed them up so he could continue reading.

"Day 2….huh this one's really short…looks like Onceler wrote down that you spent the whole day walking…into walls." Ted chuckled and ducked a playful swat.

"Day 3!" Ted rolled over and held the book in the air, liking this insight into what had happened between the Onceler and his creation...and yes, who knew? Maybe a seed would be mentioned or something.

"_Greedler and I went with Norma to see a movie called Prometheus. It…was terrifying if I'm going to be honest. Norma enjoyed it and Greedler wasn't impressed, though he hardly ever is. Reminder to work on facial expressions. Since Greed's a self learning bot I know he's capable of picking things like expressions up relatively quickly."_ Ted blinked and looked up at the bot upside down. "….Prometheus? That movie from like, forever ago? Jeez I've seen that, the special effects for it were kind of lame…" Greedler rolled his eyes and made a face as to say "Yeah but Once-ler didn't like it."

Day 5…oh, only a few more minutes left? Okay, this'll be the last day then," Ted cleared his throat and rolled back over, starting to get antsy. _"Greedler has every component needed to allow speech, yet no matter what I try, he won't utter a single word! I have NO IDEA what's wrong with him, and it's starting to worry me! I mean, it's not crucial to his helper bot duties, but it's just kind of depressing. I know he can talk, but what if he doesn't WANT too? The schematic for his throat is in my sketchbook and I've gone over it maybe a hundred times, asked Greedler to talk even more but…nothing. What am I doing wrong? Either way it must be my fault. I don't wanna be a failure, and I want the best for Greedler…" _Ted paused and looked over at the slightly sad looking bot staring at the floor with yellowed eyes. "…aw, hey pal c'mon…ah, look here, I'll just, just finish the journal…" Ted mumbled, suddenly feeling like he was caught in the middle of something.

"…_I'll keep an eye on him and make sure I don't screw up anymore. At least for now the company's still running too. Maybe I'm not a total loser...maybe mom was wrong for once."_

Ted put down the book and bit his lip. "I…that's it for Day 5…" He glanced over to Greedler and scooted closer. "…Greed?" Two dimmed green eyes flicked over to him. "You okay pal?"

"…"

"Look, for what it's worth, I bet Once-ler wasn't disappointed or anything, just worried for you. I mean, you must have had a good reason for not saying anything, right? I mean you still don't talk but you get your emotion across pretty good….did you learn that from the Once-ler?" He was given a tentative nod, but Greed was still frowning. Ted wondered vaguely if the bot was worried about what the Onceler used to think of him.

He remembered the last sentence he'd read. It sounded like the Once-ler had some self esteem issues, Ted wondered why for a split second.

"So…he's not such a failure then…and neither are you."

Greedler looked up at him, intelligent eyes questioning. Ted smiled back and ploughed on. "Think about it, from the sounds of if you were together 24/7, so everything you are, everything you _know_, is because of him, because he took care of you. …Your creator sounds like he was a pretty awesome guy."

Greed-ler stared him for a long while and…Ted just smiled slightly back. Those metal lips slowly turned upward, that once scary looking grin didn't give Ted the chills anymore. The boy grinned and handed the bot's goggles back, who slipped them back on without a word….or a strange metallic noise, as was accustomed.

Until suddenly Greedler froze, and a strange _clickclickclickclickclick_ started up somewhere inside of him, his green eyes sliding back to reveal nothing but pure white as the robot's neck slid to stare ahead at a thankfully mostly cleared expanse of wall.

Ted gaped and leaned over eagerly. Another movie was starting!

3…2…1…beep!

This time the video started recording in sync with the audio, because Ted stared at what looked like a cleaner version of the Lerkim. It looked a lot like the room they were in actually, like the Greedler in the past had been standing by the front door, a door that still had bright green paint and was not littered with cobwebs from disuse.

"_Hi there, me again!"_ The young inventor grinned. _"If you're seeing this, and you're still the same person who activated my helper bot, then congratulations! Whatever you're doing, you're doing it right."_

The Once-ler smiled and started backing up and pushing the door open.

"_I want to show you something very important, what made me create my helper bot in the first place."_ The young man said, pressing a hand on the wood as the camera followed forward and stepped out into the world.

Ted's jaw dropped.

"_This is the Truffula Valley…" _


	6. The Memory of Trees

_Chapter 6 'The Memory of Trees'_

It was a forest.

Correction, it was the mostly colourless, smoggy, dark and dismal _remains_ of a forest.

It was… _"Horrible, I know."_ Once-ler's despondent and regretful voice came over Greedbot's speakers. (It reminded Ted yet again that Greed-ler seemed to have all the technical capabilities to speak-and yet still chose to remain mostly pantomime for some reason.)

"It's not at ALL like the pictures we saw from earlier." Ted mumbled as he was brought back to the thing at hand, and he stared, but not in the good way. It wasn't at all like a stare of wonder or awe he'd given Greed-ler when he'd first activated him, (Greed wondered if it was bad of him to feel a little pride over that.). Ted sat there and watched the recording, not even noticing when he inched slightly closer to his bot, seeking comfort.

There was the Once-ler, leading the recording bot around, looking worried and slightly confused all at once. But even on the slightly fritzy screen Ted could see the wear and tear on the bright eyed inventor.

"_And here's another problem-Greed's not playing the videos in the correct order, you're seeing them backwards. I just realized that a couple nights ago after his check up. I'll have to say everything in the final recording that is said in what should have been the first," _He laughed sheepishly at the folly._ "So don't be surprised if the last thing you see sounds a lot like the first one YOU ever saw, okay? So remember, what you saw before this was the last recording,"_ The past inventor shrugged_, "Which I hope was a happy one-" _"Not really." _"-and I hope I'll remember to explain things better."_ "Again, not really!" Greed-ler hushed the boy after that.

"_But I wanted to show you what…happened. From all the thneeds, and from-from-"_ The Once-ler seemed hesitant. _"From…me and my inventions."_The man turned around and tried to smile at the camera, it looked like he was about to cry instead.

"_I give you a lot of credit, whoever you are. I didn't think anyone still cared about trees-"_

"Well that's me, the guy who still cares about trees!" You'd think by now, Ted would remember Once-ler couldn't actually hear him. Greed shot him a look, complete with raised eyebrow.

"…don't look at me like that, all I got is you to talk to all day-hey I was just kidding, relax!" He laughed when he was fondly whacked with a metal hand.

"_So like I was saying, here's the uh, damage. What you're up against, I guess. Because I…"_ Once-ler quieted and looked around sadly. _"We've been trying so hard to bring things back but…they just won't_," Once-ler stared down at something in his palm that Greed-ler, and by association Ted, couldn't see, but it was small.

"…_n-nothing will grow for me."_ Once-ler took another breath, looking like he was about to go on, until he started coughing, shaking slightly. Ted blinked worriedly and leaned forward like he could somehow help this past Once-ler. Greed-bot did too.

Ted watched the Once-ler's coughing form rattle and shake, and he watched the past Greed made concerned noises over his creator's actions and gently take his arm, leading back inside…the two of them stopped dead when they saw a woman standing in the doorway and looking down her nose at them.

"_M-mom, are you, what are-"_ The inventor eyed the suitcase clutched in her hand for only a moment, his slight illness forgotten it seemed, in favour of his mother.

"_Oncie, you have let your mama down,"_ she waved a dismissive hand in Greed's direction, not even looking at him, _"Spending all yer time with that shoddy toy of yours instead of runnin' the company-" _She sniffed and started down the steps, knocking past the tall thin man in such a way Ted thought he heard the past-Greed growl at. And…boy did Once-ler look, well, heartbroken as he turned to look after her, arms held out pleadingly.

"_But I, I, what do you mean-"_ The wide eyed man looked desperate, and Ted realized dimly he was looking for a way out, an explanation, a reason to make this woman stay... _"I didn't mean for this—" _He trailed off as he looked up at the ruined forest, staring at the destruction surrounding them. The camera turned to him and he got bigger on the screen as a worried croon sounded from the recording.

"_...No, Greedie, she's right…we, this place-we ruined this, I ruined this, all of it. It's all my fault, I…"_

Another coughing fit caught hold of the deceptively old looking 'young' man, and this time his legs gave out, sending him toppling toward the ground as the camera jerked and swung down-Greed-ler catching his fallen creator. An alarmed crackle rang out of the speakers, the noise followed by a strange gruff call of-

"_Beanpole!" _

**Bzzzt**. The recording stopped and, again, like the last time, Greed-ler and Ted were left an awkward silence.

"So…" And again, Ted's voice broke the stillness and earned him a yellowed look of sadness. "Aw, Greedie c'mon, cheer up…plea-" Greed shook his head and huffed, shoulders slouching as he stared at the ground. Ted let the bot be but sat next to him and patted his shoulder sympathetically.

Then he thought back to the movie and blinked. "…Wait, if the videos are playing backwards, that last video took place not long after this so…" Ted frowned as he racked his brain.

"Why…why _wasn't_ the Once-ler coughing so bad in _that_ video? He didn't look, well he didn't look _totally_ healthy but…he wasn't as bad as he'd seemed just now…" Well, not physically at any rate. He might not have been coughing any more but he had...just looked so _despondent,_ like he'd given up trying. Ted's frowned deepened as he thought.

So many questions.

All Ted wanted was a seed.

_Beep beep beep!_ Ted jumped a mile and looked down at his watch. Crap. Time was up.

"Erh, Greed-ler I have to go home…" The sad bot just looked sadder at this news, and Ted bit his lip.

"C'mon pal…it's almost dark, and…" Ted glanced outside and made a face at the dark and slightly stormy window across the room. "Well it's almost dark_er_…" He paused, sighing at the look on the bots face. "Come on Greed-ler, you know I head home earlier most days, I got to stay later than usual cause Mom's got her book club thing tonight and Granny's got Bingo and-"

Greed-ler turned to him, looking like he was about answer when thunder suddenly rumbled and shook the damn house to its foundations, startling even the bot and especially the boy. Watching the movie and taking in all that information had distracted them from the growing storm outside. Sudden storms and lightning drops weren't at all uncommon, but Ted had managed to avoid them up till now.

"H-holy-" Ted peeped from Greed's arm that he had in a death lock. He paused and jerked back onto his own cushion, brushing imaginary dirt off his sleeve. "Eh-heh, nothing, nothing I'm fine, s'cool I'm fine."

Greed-bot rolled its eyes and sniggered with a metal grating sound.

Ted cleared his throat. "Anyway, l-like I said, s'time to go and-" he froze at another loud crash of thunder, swallowing uneasily. This time the thunder made the tired lights overhead flicker unsteadily before coming back on.

"…I uh, better call my mom and tell her I'm staying at a friend's house for the night." Ted mumbled. They both knew full well it was stupid to go out in that. Greed-ler would probably bar the door to stop Ted leaving.

The bot sniggered again and had to dodge a playful whack as the boy headed past him to find manageable reception.

**oOo**

Greed-ler watched his boy walk away with the tiny voice box held in the air and gazed at his retreating back for a moment. Even after he had moved out into the hallway, Greedbot's enhanced auditory processors picked up the conversation he was having with his mother.

She was agreeing to let him stay at a 'friend's' house.

_Friend_. Greedler ran the name through his database. _**1. **__A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.__**2. **__A person whom one enjoys; an acquaintance._ Greed nodded his head but dug deeper through the files. A relatively new answer came up and he blinked a little at it.

_**3**__…One who supports, sympathizes with a cause, or movement.  
sympathizes with a cause  
a cause_

Bringing back the trees. It was a faint idea that came to him; it was almost a new objective as well.

_Take care of the one who woke him up._ Said a strong directive in him.

_Bring back the trees when the following conditions are met… _Greed-ler closed the file without a second thought and nodded to himself. Yes. He understood that very clearly.

What he did not understand-and here is where he deviated from robot to…something else-because he _questioned_, something a simple robot, a pile of bolts, should _not _be able to do. What he did not understand was…

_Once-ler…where did you go? By all known definitions…we were __friends__. Didn't you…need me, anymore? _He thought back to what they'd just watched, his eyes following Ted as he walked back into the room, smiling adorably and talking animatedly to his "grammy" about something, possible him.

…_I needed you._

**oOo**

"Hey Geed can you come here for a second, I need ya."

The robot looked up from his bottle of oil and crooned questioningly.

"What even _are_ these Greed?"

Ted stood in the doorway, covered in soot and holding a box of strange coloured discs in his arms, making a face down at them. Greed-ler actually lit the heck up and held out his hands, making excited, delighted noises, gesturing for Ted to set the box down on the table next to them.

"Okay, okay, calm down!" He laughed, putting them down as instructed. "…They're discs, right? But…they're huge, like between a computer disc and one of those old records Grammy has." The youth observed, picking another up for inspection.

"Well anyway, what do they…yanno, _DO_? Aside from sit there and catch the light really well." Ted asked, holding one up to the dim ceiling lights, wracking his brain for what job the discs might have. Because really, Ted was 13, and while he had a better attention span that most boys his age, it was still slim to start with. To be expected to spend the entire night in this dark and slightly creepy old Lerkim of the long gone Once-ler's with nothing to do was…not exactly a big thing on Ted's bucket list. Greed-ler made it better, really, but there was only so much even the eager automaton could do.

Which is why he'd gone poking around in cupboards for something to entertain himself with.

Greed-ler picked up a red disc and handed it to him, nodding encouragingly.

"Okay, a red one, great. But what do I do with this thing? That's what I'm asking, look if you don't know buddy it's fine-" Ted tried, waving the ruby red disc.

Greed-ler chirped and whirred, jabbing a claw over his shoulder. Ted blinked cluelessly.

"…What? Your back? Well, turn around I guess, and let's see-oh." Because he'd found a…slot. Very thin, the size of the disc on his hand, the fabric of Greed's clothes slit just a tiny bit to allow access, hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it. "Uh…like this?" He asked, slipping it in.

Greed-ler clicked and clanked his teeth, turning his back to the wall and sitting against it, looking at the empty wall across the room. His green eyes flipped up like a doll's, it was a little scary, and revealed a simple white space that glowed and became too bright for Ted to look at in the dark room.

"Greed, what are-" The noise that stopped him was a mechanical equivalent to a shush.

A familiar square of light appeared on the wall opposite Greed-ler, and an opening sequence from an old movie studio started playing.

"...Oh! Movies, cool! I forgot that book said you had a disc player in you! Man Greed, you're too awesome." Ted gushed, stepping over to Greed and plopping himself between the bots legs to get a better view. Being small for once wasn't so bad, Greedie could shoot the recording over his head and Ted could lean against the bot's metal chest and watch with big, excited eyes.

It turned out the discs were colour coded by genre. They found out the red discs played action movies, the green ones played romance (Ted made Greed pop that one out when the kissing began) and the black were horror. There was a blue one about owning a business, but Ted didn't find much interesting about that, so he stuck another black one in the bot's back and settled back in his 'front row' seat happily. The only thing that would make this better would be popcorn, or maybe Audrey to watch the really scary parts with so she could cling to him. The thought made Ted bite his lip with a grin.

They were just getting to the good part about zombies terrorizing fleeing, screaming people when the screen went dark and Greed's eyes rolled back down to their normal green.

"Wha, hey, Greedie no fair, we just started that one!" Ted whined. "Why are you-?"

Greed-ler blinked and held out his mechanical hand flat so Ted could see the palm. A hidden circle pulled back and slid apart in the middle, and Ted gasped as a small, simple clock face appeared and swivelled to Ted's side of the hand instead of Greed's. It read 10pm, and Greed pointed to the number sternly.

Ted got over his amazement when he looked up at the bot to see Greed-ler giving him a rather serious, critical look. The sort of look that a parent might reserve for a child who'd stayed up too late. Ted pouted when he realized this was _exactly_ the case and Greed wasn't budging.

"Aw, geez…fine, _mom_," The slight insult was lost on the bot as he got to his feet and pointed to the floor where he'd laid out the couch cushions and a rolled up a blanket to make a bed. It was the best they could do, unless Ted wanted to risk sleeping on the couch and have springs poking into his back all night. As it was Ted kicked off his sneakers and yanked off his goggles, shot Greed a childish look of anger and flopped gracelessly onto the cushions. Greed-ler chuckled and sat down next to him, leaning against the wall as Ted made himself comfy.

After a moment Ted got over the injustice of his forced bedtime as he realized he actually _was_ pretty sleepy. Rolling onto his back, he thought back to the day's events as he stared up at the ceiling. A seed of a different kind started growing in his stomach, the worst kind Grammy said there was.

What if he never got a seed? What if, when the last/first movie played, they still had no idea what to do or where to look, despite Greed's and Once-ler's best efforts? What if Ted wasn't smart enough to figure out the movies as they played backwards? What would Audrey say if she knew he'd tried and failed, miserably?

Or, oh god…what if someone found out he was sneaking out here every day and discovered Greed-ler before any of that could come to into play?

"…I'll figure this out, right Greed?" Ted rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand, trying to look confident. The bot turned to look at him with pale green eyes and Ted smiled faintly.

"I can do this, right? I mean, we can do this…" Ted bit his lip. "You'll help me, right? I don't think I can do this whole 'bring back the trees' thing alone." The task seemed a tad impossible.

Greed-ler looked at him for a long while, unblinkingly, and then nodded slowly with a small smile.

Ted smiled back, that seed of doubt shrinking back in on itself in his stomach. He had a feeling that nod was as good as he was gonna get from his friend. But coming from Greed it was…enough.

"Alright well, g'night pal." Ted sighed, yawned and rolled back over, snuggling down. "Don'let the bed bugs…" he yawned, "bite."

Just as he was on the brink of sleep, something grabbed his blanket from where it lay on his waist and fixed it over his shoulders, but by that time the exhausted boy was already asleep.

**oOo**

The next morning Ted groaned when bright light hit his closed eyes.

"I, what?" He moaned intelligently from within the rolled up blanket, trying to get away from the light. "Greed-ler, Greed-hey, pal-" He croaked. It was funny that his first thought was to call for the robot, but then again who _else_ could he call for here?

A happy croon answered him, right by his ear, and that finally got the boy to open his eyes, blinking at the sight of… Oh, well that explained it. It wasn't morning sunlight that had woken him, it was…the cheerful green from the automaton's eyes as he leaned over him, calling softly.

Realising his boy was finally awake; Greed made more noises and his gears clicked and groaned cheerfully.

"G'mornin'. Ughhh…you're in a chipper mood pal." Ted mumbled, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. "What time is anyway, I-wait where did you get oatmeal?" Ted mumbled blankly, staring down at the tray Greed-ler was setting on his lap. Greed-ler whirred and ticked and made it a point to show Teddy there was tea too, it was still steaming.

"And tea, yes. I repeat, where did you even _find _oatmeal_?_" Ted raised a doubtful, worried eyebrow. "…Or a clean bowl for that matter-"

Greed-ler clanked his teeth and wrinkled his nose, the skin stretching realistically, and rolled his eyes. He jabbed a claw at the tray with the simple meal and drink and gave another jab toward the boy's mouth, as if thinking perhaps the boy was suddenly slow.

"Yeah, no, I GET it, it's breakfast, you made me breakfast," His manners caught up with him. "Thank you, really, but uh…" He peered closer at the stuff. "How _old_ is all this?"

Again the watch in Greed's hand was presented to him with a simple click and swivel. A gloved finger hovered by the 7.

"Erh…okaaay." It was currently 7:34 according to the watch; Greed had made this at 7 am. Ted blinked and processed this.

"Uh, so, recent." Ted supplied. Greed-ler chattered away wordlessly with pointy teeth and smiled as he stood up with some effort, towering over the boy and watching him expectantly.

"Oh, right…" Ted felt rather prompted at this look and he dipped the funny thing that might have once been a spoon, (but it was a clean funny thing and it held the oatmeal, so Ted decided he wasn't in any position to complain,) into the bowl. He tasted it, a small bit, wondering if food poisoning was something Greed-ler would know how to treat…

"…hey, hey this stuff isn't so bad." Ted paused. "Okay but how did you get the _stove_ working?" He stared upward incredulously at the bot. This time Greed-ler cocked his head and held up his metal pointer finger.

The sharp tip slid away and a little blue flame shot out of it, a tiny blowtorch. Ted almost dropped the spoon (or whatever it was) and gaped wide-eyed. "Okay, hello! That's a feature I don't remember in the book!"

Greed-ler just smirked proudly.

**oOo**

Having provided for his human, the automaton wandered back into the kitchen as Ted ate. He had already cleaned what needed to be cleaned after making breakfast, now he only needed to put things back where he'd found them. He honestly thought he was lucky to find all that stuff in the tall cabinets where it had been stored for years, and that dried oats had a long life expectancy. The thermos of milk Ted had bought with him to make tea had taken care of the rest. There had never been any need to look in those tall cupboards before, but now that _Ted_ was here, why, it was perfect!

He started putting things away, face impassive and illuminating green eyes focused on his work as he did so, his arms extending to allow him to reach the high shelves.

This…reminded him of something, of a time when he got to do this every day and was always given an affectionate smile in return, just like Ted had when he'd sipped the tea and found it rather good despite his earlier reservations.

He unconsciously started pulling up old memory files, letting old, happy times flitter behind his electronic green eyes. As he saw his creators smiling face at him, young and bright and determined once again, he paused his work and held out his palm flat to stare at. He was alone, so it was okay, he was certain. The palm opened as it had done for the watch, but this time a clock face was not what was revealed.

Greed-ler stared at the key impassively until a smile grew on his lips as more memories trickled back to him, and then he closed his hand and the files with a simple click and went back to cleaning.

**oOo**

"Okay pal, time for me to head home...Greed-ler?" The automaton, who had been staring at a spot behind Ted looked back down at the sound of his voice. Huh. That was new, Greed didn't usually space out. Maybe he just needed some oil in him. His attention now back on Ted, the robot watched him a bit sadly.

"Take care buddy, okay? I'll be back tomorrow, Mom said I got a lot of time to make up for after all this 'running off' I've been doing." Ted rolled his eyes theatrically and slung his bookbag over his shoulder, helmet tucked under his arm as he headed for his bike.

"See you tomorrow!" Ted called like he always did back at the bot. Greed normally waved, nodded, chirped, did _some_thing but today…he didn't. He stared beyond Ted again and his metal brow furrowed in askance and confusion as his goggles tried to see through the thick foggy air.

"Why're you...what's behind me Greed? …Pal?" Ted asked slowly, beginning to worry.

He stared out into the foggy gloom, trying to spot just what Greedler was…oh. Oh! There…there _was _something, something moving about in that dreary mist, stirring it up with their movements.

"H…Hello?" He tried, swallowing nervously and gripping his helmet tighter as if he planned to use it as a weapon if push came to shove. "Who's there? Hello?"

There was no answer, the entity simply continued to move towards him.

As it approached Ted could see it a bit clearer. It was tall-well, taller than Ted anyway, and thin, something flapping at its heels. It was…coming slowly-like there was no reason to hurry-and it was not. Slowing. _Down_. What…what WAS it? It was coming at them from the _opposite_ direction of town. How could ANYTHING human survive in a place like this with no shelter?

The thirteen year old with the overactive imagination (who **had** watched at least 2 horror movies last night about zombies walking from the gloom to eat innocent humans) suddenly found himself panicking. His heart in his throat he scrambled back from his scooter, dropping his helmet by accident and tripping back as the thing continued to loom closer. Without thinking he yelled, harsh and panicked,

"G-GREED-LER!"

And the robot that originally refused to leave the front door responded spectacularly, optics widening and turning to blaze an angry crimson as the thing bearing down on Ted continued to stalk toward the boy with no regards to the fact Ted was very much terrified and trying to scrabble backwards to get away. The automaton took the four old steps in two clanky leaps and planted himself in front of Ted, effectively covering him from view and…hissing. A loud and sharp noise, like a kettle starting to boil, only angrier, issued from his mouth as the bots shoulders rose and he took a defensive stance. The figure grew a limb, waved the smog away and-

And he coughed. _Wheezed_ actually, throaty and hacking.

Wait. What?

Ted paused, still looking scared but now slightly less terrified and more vaguely confused.

"….Greed, wait…" He found himself calling softly against his better judgement with an out stretched hand. This new guy didn't seem…well, so scary anymore. The bot's hissing slowed, faltered, and finally died in its throat at Ted's quiet words. He tilted his head and even straightened up as the figure, a very hunched over old figure with a funny mask on, sidled slowly out of the gloom with all the speed of a great-great-great grandfather snail.

A gloved hand, worn and fuzzy with age, reached up and fixed something pink and wooly around its neck for warmth. And then it continued its shaky progress up and tugged an odd mask away, the straps coming undone so the sagging hat atop the old body's head wasn't removed.

There was a longer pause, 3 sets of eyes staring back and forth at each other. A wide set of young brown eyes peeking out from behind someone that had orange, _warning_ optics and…and very washed out, tired blue eyes of someone who's seen too much to ever be wide eyed and innocent again.

"…Hey, Greedie." The old man said softly.


	7. Exile

**A/N: Why the fuck does this have 7 chapters. **

_Chapter 7 'Exile'_

Ted Wiggins honestly had no freaking clue _what_ to do.

He peered around Greed-bot at the old guy with the funny clothes and top hat, as the stranger stood there wheezing ever so slightly. He didn't even notice his hands were gripping the robot's coat until the man switched his gaze to him and his hold tightened, his eyes widening in apprehension.

"Hello." He said rather kindly to Ted, who only blinked and froze even more.

Greed-bot made a rattle in the back of his metal neck and edged over half a step to cover Ted from this stranger's view.

The old man chuckled, and turned a fond gaze back to the robot, shaking his head. "You haven't changed a bit Greedie. I have though, haven't I?"

The automaton stared blankly at him, the orange glow of his eyes dying back to a cautionary yellow as curiosity took over now that Ted was safe behind him.

"…You don't remember me, do you? Forgot the guy who built yeh, did ya?" The man smiled a bit, and didn't seem particularly worried about it. Just saddened, as if perhaps it was his fault, and not Greed-bot's.

The bot's eyes flared to startled orange again and he clanked his teeth, pushing his goggles back with a hand to peer closer at the man.

"Run my face through your database Greed-ler, I'll wait." The old man encouraged quietly.

Greed-ler apparently did as the man prompted, because he went rather still before Ted and his optics sort of glazed over, pupils darting left and right as he looked through…files? Images, maybe? It was hard to tell what exactly the automaton was doing, and after a moment's pause Ted bit his lip and peeked around his friend. When his overprotective bot didn't immediately reprimand him for moving, he dared to inch out a bit more.

"_You're_…the guy who made Greed-ler?" He couldn't keep the astonishment out of his tone.

"Yes, I am. And I can only assume by the way he just threatened to take off my head for going near you, you're the boy who found and activated him."

"Erh, sorry about that. I…I thought you were a zombie or something…" Ted mumbled, and moved cautiously closer, knowing he was safe as long as he was within the robot's reach. Greed wouldn't let him get hurt.

The older man chuckled. "Big imagination, huh?" To which the slightly embarrassed boy shrugged and nodded, unable to deny. But then something hit Ted, a certain thought that rose its head and smacked him round the brain, making Ted gasp and give the old man big wide eyes, because this was-this was!?

"Hey, hey you're the Once-ler!"

The man nodded, a small sad smile on his lips.

Greed-bot blinked. And _crooned_.

"Yes Greed, it's me…" The man addressed the robot softly. He pulled something out of his huge coat-a simple pocket watch, and flicked it open, showing the two before him the contents. It was just a simple device with the usual 3 hands, and they were ticking along steadily. There was nothing extraordinary about it at all.

But the face was identical; Ted realized as he stared at it, to the one Greed had built into his palm.

And then was Ted's turn to blink, because his attention was drawn from the old man's hand to the robot he'd thought he had figured out. To be fair he had never had strangers near Greed so Ted had never gotten to see how the robot would interact with other people beside him…but this was new. And oh wow Greedie looked all…happy? Like ridiculously relived and happy all at once, teeth clanking excitedly as he lurched forward and threw his metal arms round the old gentleman, (who oofed quietly but smiled nonetheless and hugged him back as best he could.) while Ted watched, feeling a bit awkward.

And the old man chuckled, patting the bot's back lightly before he was released, smiling up at the robot. Greed noticed this and made a questioning noise.

"No…._you_ didn't grow Greedie I got, I got shorter." Once-ler says with a smile, turning back to Ted. Greed went quiet at this, and Ted noticed the familiar quizzical look, but the bot didn't press the matter and instead stepped to the side so Once-ler could see Ted.

"And you are…?"

It was a simple question, but Ted ducked his head. It didn't _sound_ like he was in trouble, but nevertheless he found himself looking at his sneakers and scuffing his shoe lightly against the dirt.

"Uh, Ted, Ted Wiggins...and you're, you're the Once-ler…the one who built Greed-bot?" Stupid, obvious question, but his brain was in overdrive, he (and Greed too from the look on his face) though Once-ler to be DEAD, okay? This was a shocker.

"From scratch." Once-ler finished, watching the kid.

It was then Greed glanced at his creator a moment, and then took three steps over to Ted's side, patting his head with his gloved hand and turning round to stand next to the boy.

"Well, uh, good to meet you" Ted tried awkwardly as Greed-bot picked up his helmet and handed it over to him. "Sorry I was uh…. just heading home." He murmured at the helmet in his hands, completely missing the eyebrow raise from Once-ler at the bot's actions.

"Yeah?" An awkward silence, not at all the comfortable kind Ted was used to between him and Greed.

Finally Ted's curiosity got the better of him and he yelped "If-if you've been alive all this time, where have you _BEEN_ dude!?" Greed-bot nodded and looked like he agreed, but pointed to the Lerkim and jerked his head at Ted.

"Huh? Oh yeah, you, you probably wanna go inside out of the smog to talk, right, uh…" Ted tried, glancing back at the house.

"In a moment, I've waited 44 years, I can wait 4 minutes." The hunched over man says with a nod, one arm folded behind his back as he hung the mask round his neck and nodded at Ted.

"To answer your previous question…" The man sighed a bit heavily and shrugged. "Well I suppose you could say I was in exile…but that's the nice term, what I really was doing was running away from my problem and I," the old man shakes his head before meeting Ted's eyes, "…don't ever do that kid, alright? It doesn't solve anything." Faded blue eyes moved to scan the dark and depressing land around them, complete with the old house leaning against the wind.

"It only makes things worse."

When the man didn't go on, Ted realized how serious this was and gave a small nod.

"Anyway" The Once-ler said, clearing his throat and not-so subtly changing the subject "You said you were on your way home, yes? I shouldn't keep you, your family will be getting worried"

When Ted opened his mouth to argue the old man held up one gloved hand.

"We have all the time in the world to talk Ted, I'm not going anywhere, not now I've finally dragged myself back. We can talk tomorrow after I've had a rest and cleared the smog out of these old lungs."

"Uh, right, yeah. You'll be uh, staying with Greed-ler then, right? In the Lermkin?"

"It is still my house, even if I did abandoned it for a while." The Once-ler said with a wry smile.

"Right, that, that makes sense!" Ted laughed uneasily, feeling a little like he was being swept along. But the Once-ler was right, it _was _his house, Ted had no right to keep him out, and in any cause he couldn't let the old man stay outside in all this smog.

But Once-ler asked one more question as the boy get ready to go.

"Have you seen any of the movies yet Ted?" his voice was quiet and Ted had the inkling this might have been a test, what the real question was _Had he seen any movies at all?_

Ted bit his lip as he strapped on his helmet and grabbed his bike by its handles. "We've seen two of them…the first/last one, and then the second one where you said they were running backwards."

"Mhm, I see." Once-ler nodded, mustache twitching as his blue eyes looked into the distance in thought.

"Well see ya I guess…bye Greed…take care, okay?"

The robot crooned and waved to him, a much better wave than his first few tries, and Ted smiled before blinking and turning back to the Once-ler.

"Hey, now that you're here man, do I still need to watch the videos to get a seed?"

"Mh, that depends, do you still want a tree?" The old man dead panned.

Ted made a face but nodded obediently. Seriously Once-ler was sassy for an old guy.

Greed-bot sniggered.

**oOo**

The robot watched Ted's receding back like he'd done for the past week and a half, and only moved his gaze when his optics could no longer keep the small figure in his sights. One charge taken care of, the bot happily turned back to his other human and let loose a burst of static and noise, taking the old man's elbow and walking with him toward the stairs that had no railing.

"Thank you, Greed."

This was an interesting development.

Once-ler, his Once-ler, his brilliant, vibrant creator had returned!

But he was….he had done what living things tended to do at sometime or the other…he had aged.

Greed-bot sat down with a clunk and thought things over for a moment as his creator moved about, settling himself back in to the Lerkim.

Truth be told, it was a bit startling to the bot.

For one thing they didn't have the same features anymore. And that just felt _weird_ to the robot, for lack of a better term. Erh, hold on. The robot thought hard, evidenced by the way his green eyes brightened as he searched his database for the correct term.

_weird (wîrd)_

_adj. __**weird·er**__, __**weird·est**_

_**2. **__Of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange._

…Then yes, that was the right word. _Weird._

He opened his mouth and tried the word, it sounded something like _"Grrooohaahhk_." Once-ler looked round the corner and asked him what was wrong.

Greed-bot gave a half shrug and turned away. Still couldn't use his vocals correctly, why after 60 plus years he was still trying he didn't know.

It wasn't until Greed had served Once-ler his afternoon tea (Ted had been kind enough to leave what milk was left with them, even going so far as to promise to bring back other essentials the Once-ler might need.) that Greed-bot realized just how weird things were.

He had his creator, yes, that much was certain. His computer mind liked certainty, like numbers and proven facts and such. For example, Once-ler took 1 cream and 2 sugars in his coffee. Well, he would if there was coffee and the coffee maker wasn't covered in dust and something black.

He also had his…boy? Ted. His _friend_. Once-ler was his friend too.

Was he….was he allowed to have…more than one friend? _Two_ people to take care of? Could he, could he do that?

Well, things were weird. And Greed-bot, though he knew robots shouldn't really be able to do this, felt that things were only going to weirder.

**oOo**

Thankfully Ted made it home with little trouble, and only had to dodge a few questions about where he was and what he had done at his sleepover.

'Watched movies,' _-from a human robot's eyes._ "Had breakfast," _-made by said robot._ "Usual stuff, you know mom?" _-ran into the robot's 80 year old creator. No big deal._

"That's great honey; say, would you mind running to the store for me? The list is on the fridge and Ma'll be here when you get home, I've got to head to work."

Ted shrugged and nodded. "Suuuure mom, no problem…m'gonna take a shower…I'll go in a bit, see you when yah get home."

"Thank you Teddy," His mom smiled, kissing his cheek as she headed out for her second shift.

After his shower and a quick change of clothes Ted did exactly that. Snagged his helmet once more and hopped on his bike, heading for the store. Twenty minutes later found him with a bag safely strapped in behind him, filled with what his mother wanted, as well as a few extra's Ted thought Once-ler might appreciate.

'_If Grammy's the only one home tonight I bet I can sneak out to Greedie and Once-ler later, and figure out the next step for activating the third video! Hah! Seed, here I come!'_

Ted grinned to himself and turned his bike down an alley, a familiar route he'd taken hundreds of times that shortened the trip by a good 10 minutes, because sometimes Thneedville's roads twisted and turned more than they really should. His mind drifted to familiar, dreamy thoughts of Audrey and the look on her face when he gave her a growing, healthy tree, when she'd turned to him, pretty eyes shining and leaning close, lips pursed and-

His bike collided with something and Ted's dreams ended with a yell over the noise of his tire skidding and the grocery bag going everywhere.

"Gyahh-!"

The boy groaned and shook his head, trying to gain his wits. Felt like he hit a wall. Ted opened his eyes and looked up. There were two huge people in his way, black glasses staring down at him and faces expressionless.

"Heeeey there. Ted, right?"

_"_Uhm_…_Mister O'Hare?" The voice was instantly recognisable after all the commercials, and the kid scrambled to his feet before the short mayor, casting around for his bike, for his escape-it was held in a hand about the size of a shovel, and Ted tried not to looked frantic. The body language of those goons was clear, he wasn't going anywhere till O'Hare was done with him.

Great.

"Listen, kid, you got a minute? Of course you do! C'mere-" he was tugged close and held firmly in place by the mayor and that growing feeling of unease in the pit of Ted's stomach intensified. He suddenly really wished Greed-bot was here, or something.

"Here's the deal, let me just get right down to business…outside of town? That dark, dismal and dangerous place? Well I've noticed lately that you're leaving Thneedville to go out there! Now what's that about, eh?"

"I, uh-"

"-Can't imagine why," O'Hare continued, unabated. He didn't seem to care about Ted actually participating in this conversation at all. The boy swallowed and glanced behind him where the bodyguards were standing as O'Hare went on.

"Because for about as long as I've been selling fresh air to the good people of Thneedville I've also been looking for something, out there, past the walls. And everytime I get just a little close something messes me up."

"And you're telling me this becaaause…" Ted said slowly, using his drawn out words to glance at possible escape routes. Great, he couldn't see one. O'Hare's men were huge, alright? Yeah, no, he wasn't getting out of here…or even calling for help at this point.

"I'm telling you this because you're a smart boy, Teddy! You can help me! The one problem I have is just…finding it." O'Hare said slowly. "I been looking all over town, and _around it_," he glanced at the boy to see if Ted might gave away anything in his expression. An innocent blink was all he received and the Mayor's cheek twitched, his patience running dry.

"Alright let's just cut to the chase, you HAVE been sneaking out of town, Teddy-can't imagine _why_, you have everything a 13 year old boy like you needs to keep their little mind entertained-"

"But Mister O'Hare I haven't-" He was cut off as the short man jerked him down to his eye level by the front of his shirt, and Ted's eyes widened at the seething glare he was suddenly getting.

"Don't you lie to me you little-eh heh, what I meant to say was, with or without your help, I'm going to find what's out there, Ted! Mark my words!"

_'This guy is one crazed fruitloop, I'll give him that. Find? What could he possibly want to find out in the Wasteland? It couldn't be…' _Ted thought as he straightened up and adjusted his shirt. He swallowed; this was starting to feel like some place he should not be in. Right. Time to exit stage left.

"Hey, that's great and all, I'm sure you'll do a great job at that Mister O'Hare but, I-I need to get back to home," Ted turned away from O'Hare and one of his men, big mistake. He missed a wordless signal.

"My mom's expecting me and-hey, leggo, _mmph_!"

"I said I was going to find it, didn't I? Even if I have to use _you_ as bait."

Ted wasn't sure why he felt like he was floating. He realized it was either because of the funny scented cloth over his face or the fact he really _was_ being lifted, tossed none too lightly over something that felt like a wall, except it was soft and black. Something held him in place and Ted faintly saw the ground move beneath him until his eyelids stopped opening. Blinking was so hard, so he stopped.

_'But I was…going to see…if I don't show up he'll…worry or worse…come looking for….'_

And then Ted's entire world went soft and black as he drifted off into something that sort of resembled sleep….but really wasn't.

**oOo**

Ted Wiggins came at 11 o' clock every day, and if he wasn't going to he ALWAYS told Greed-bot a day in advance. So, it's only natural that when 11 came and went, Once-ler suddenly found himself with an anxious, jittery bot on his hands.

"Greed-bot, _please_ close the front door, I'm sure the boy will be here."

_WhhRRRRrrrr._ Said the bot as he slammed the door back against its frame and crossed his arms, lips pulled up past sharp teeth.

"Pouting, eh? That won't make him come any faster. Look what time is he normally here?" Once-ler leaned forward and squinted at the small palm watch that was placed before him.

"…Eleven? Alright, see it's only….oh, alright, well, two hours isn't _so_ bad." The inventor said, trying to relax his robot. It didn't work.

Once-ler regretted teaching the bot that being on time was one of the politest things one could do. Because of that Greed-bot had picked up the idea that anyone who WAS late was clearly in trouble or needed some assistance because otherwise, _why weren't they at the location specified at the correct time?_ Once-ler remembered his robot's logic, and he also remembered coming home one day late to see that same look he saw now on the bot's face. Worry, confusion and hurt all mixed into one. But he had been a young man then, and perfectly capable of looking out for his own well-being. Ted was what, 13? Once-ler remembered being that young, and remembered the way Greed had a tendency to fret like a mother hen.

"He's a young boy, short attention span. I'm sure he's late all the time." Once-ler tried, but it was a feeble argument.

The bot clanked his teeth together twice and shook his head. _No!_

The old man sighed and had a feeling his bot wasn't going to relent. "Of course not. Regardless, I'm sure the boy's fine, he wouldn't get lost in the wastelands so easily, would he?"

There was a long drawn out moment between the two, during which Greed-bot's eyes crinkled in apprehension and he cooed at his creator, eyes orange with worry and concern and…oh dash it all.

Once-ler gave a long suffering sigh and handed over a face mask he had just finished tweaking.

"Be careful out there. Avoid the town."

Greed-bot perked up, chirped and nodded, taking the mask.

"Good luck." Once-ler said with a final nod, watching his bot tramp out the door.

Then the old inventor simply shook his head, bending his spine over his aged worktable.

"Known him for about two weeks and already the boy's…well I'll be…" The man muttered to himself, as he was apt to do after so many years alone. "Hm….Maybe, just maybe." Once-ler mused to no one as he tinkered away.

**oOo**

Ted came to consciousness only because of the throbbing in his head and the dizziness he felt as he was jostled around. It was only when he fell against something hard and finally lay still that he managed to crack open an eyelid.

Ted was on the ground-oh, great. He lay on his side, blinking blearily at the men's shoes surrounding him, two pairs identical and large, and then most of O'Hare's lower body. The man was…ranting, threatening something but Ted couldn't quite find it in himself to pay attention to him, because he was too busy weakly flexing his arms and legs, distressed to find they were bound and he was unable to move them much at all…double great.

He took a breath to try and calm himself…and it ended with several coughs, he couldn't help it, the air out here was horrible- wait, horrible air? That meant they were outside the town, in the wastelands! This wasn't a place you should be out too long in, already he sort of felt light-headed, though truthfully that could have been from his earlier impromptu nap. That last thing he remembered, the last thing was…O'Hare, and his men and-oh, ohhhh boy.

"-don't worry kid, you're doing a great job helping us, live bait and all. But I can promise you you're in no danger whatsoever, and we'll have you home before you know it! Just think of this as bad dream, Teddy." O'Hare taunted as he nudged the boys sneaker with his foot. Ted moaned and tried to wiggle away, for all the good it did him, head still reeling as he tried to gain his bearings.

_'I think I…I'm in serious trouble here….'_ The boy's eyes fluttered closed, worry gnawing at his stomach.

_'I need help…but the only one whose even remotely close could never know, right? …crap…'_

His eyes opened again when the smallest of metallic noises hit his ears.

You know how sometimes when there's a rush of things going on, your mind can only focus on something little and rather insignificant?

Well that's what Ted's mind was doing. It was focusing on the distant metallic clanking noise, and as he blinked hazily and stared in the direction he guessed the noise was coming from he thought he saw pin pricks of orange appearing in the fog. He glanced sleepily at them, because they were peculiar and didn't belong to the scenery. But the boy only noticed they were getting closer when O'Hare's yelling at his bodyguards about something was cut off by a, "H-hey what's that!?"

The men shrugged and one moved to take out a pair of binoculars. The noise suddenly stopped, the lights flickered for a moment…then darkened to a deep crimson red as a metallic, echo-y growl surrounded them. Everyone except Ted froze, and gaped, and possibly wet themselves.

It occurred, faintly, to the still groggy boy that if no one had activated Greed-bot till he came along-

_**SCREEEEEEECH!**_

-Then what were the odds O'Hare he even _knew_ about him?

"What is that, _WHAT IS THAT!?"_ O'Hare screamed, shaking his head and taking a step back.

Odds were apparently pretty slim.

A sharp metallic grating noise was heard as Greed-bot emerged hissing from the fog in his full metal glory, not even pausing as he raised a ludicrously large, ancient looking axe over his head and advanced threateningly. It had a broken, chipped end, Ted noted, trying to shift positions to better see-Greed must have passed one of the many broken down axe slasher vehicles and 'removed' one of its axes. The bot didn't even appear to be under a strain holding that freakishly huge weapon. But he did appear to be pissed off. Ted swallowed as Greed-bot turned sharp red eyes on O'Hare and his men and let loose another grating noise that sent the men floundering back.

O'Hare's orders for his men to stop the bot went unheard as everyone who wasn't hog tied on the ground scrambled away from the looming bot. This unfortunately sent one of the goons tripping over Ted, who yelped out in slight pain and wiggled to avoid being trampled further.

Greed-bot gave an indignant shriek after he heard Ted cry out, and lunged for them faster, hefting the axe on one shoulder and slashing out defensively with his clawed right hand as he stomped forward and towered over Ted's form.

That did it, "Forget the kid, forget him! Just get me out of here, _**now**_ you meatheads!"

Ted, curled up in a protective foetal position on the ground, closed his eyes tight and listened to everything that was happening around him-engines roaring, O'Hare's voice shouting something, Greed-bot's gears turning and clicking, the bot's own hissing slowly dying down as the engine faded into background noise and finally ebbed away.

Ted opened one eye and peeked up.

Friendly emerald had replaced the livid red and the aggressive noises were replaced with a slow cautious chirring sound as the bot looked over him worriedly.

Ted grinned, relaxing. "Coast clear?" The bots face split into a grin, and he nodded. He tossed the huge chipped axe over his shoulder and started kneeling down before Ted. The axe landed so hard the ground shook from the impact, but the robot ignored it in favour of his boy. He eyed the rope for only a moment before raking a razor sharp finger against some of them and fraying it severely enough to snap.

As soon as Ted was free he lunged up and actually threw his arms around the automaton, pressing into his metal chest for a moment. Ted didn't care if it was girly or childish to do…that…that had been scary, all right?

Greed-bot must have noticed his shaking because he trilled softly and flicked fond eyes at him, patting his back with his good hand and picking the rest of the ropes off him before adjusting the crooked goggles hanging round the boy's neck. Ted's arms tightened at the familiarity of the gesture and took a couple breaths to relax himself. Right. He was fine now. Greed was here.

When Ted pulled back he coughed and looked away. "Uh, thanks. That was….thanks." He settled for, feeling rather lame. His embarrassment over acting childish was gone when he took another breath that ended with several coughs that wracked his small body. Ted was unused to being out in the wastelands for longer then the short ride between town and the Lerkim.

A worried rattle of gears sounded above his head and then something was being held over his mouth and nose, strapped round his head and held firmly in place as Ted's eyes widened and he gasped and-Oh.

Hey, hey he could _breathe_ better in this!

"Thanks, Greed-" His voice was muffled but the bot smirked anyway at him and mimicked the favorite thing Ted had taught him so far, a thumbs up. Ted grinned right back but now that his immediate needs were taken care of another worry reared its ugly head as he cast around for a sign or a road of some kind, anything at all to give him a hint of the way back to town.

"I…uh…." He looked around. "Hey, my bike!" No helmet, but Ted wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. O'Hare's goons must have ditched it in their haste to run away. He scrambled to the bike and heaved it upright, grinning, "Alright! Now we can…." He looked around.

Crud. Nothing was familiar. Everything in this place looked, _looked the same!_

"Greed…w-where are we?"

His stomach dropped when the robot blinked at him and shrugged calmly.

"This is bad. Oh this is very bad, I, I need to get back to town, right now!" _Mom and Grammy are going to be SO worried! _"But I, where…where even are we!?"

Greed-bot blinked at the small meltdown his charge was having and looked around curiously.

Then he chirred and looked down at his hand. It was enough to stop the kid next to him from wigging out more, because it was a noise Ted had actually never heard before from the robot.

Greed beeped again, and pointed down at his large clawed hand as the plates in his palm parted to show a compass of all things, in place of where he'd seen the watch face.

"…Huh? Well I guess we know where North is…that doesn't help though." The boy mumbled, but the robot shook its head and reached over to Ted to show the device.

It WAS a compass, and it was the same size as the clock had been. Except the little red arrow pointed toward the words '_Home_' instead of where East should have been. Greed-bot turned his hand. The plate AND dial swivelled to stay on '_Home'_ The other locations, '_Factory_,' and '_Greenville_' were ignored, but _Greenville_ was close to where Home was staying. There were only 3 destinations, and Ted furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at them.

"Wait…._Green_ville? That was…" He thought back, something from History class ringing a bell. The bot made a questioning noise at him, and the boy lifted his head to look at the bot as he explained.

"Thneedville IS Greenville, or at least it is now, that's what it used to be called like 90 years ago or something…." Something clicked into place but Ted put it on the back burner for now. What they needed was to get out of here, not a history lesson.

"_Can_ you get us to town Greed!?" Ted asked the robot excitedly.

There was a moment, the automaton whirred softly, and then the plate underneath the arrow moved and faced behind them, the words swaying under the arrow.

"So town's that way? But…wait, I can't take you into town…" Ted thought aloud sadly, playing with the face mask. He could only _imagine _peoples reactions...

"I guess…let's just get you home and go from there. I can find my way back from the Lermkin." The odd compass swivelled so the arrow pointed in generally the same direction as the town had been, except now '_Home'_ glowed faintly.

"Let's go buddy, it'll be faster on my bike." The boy said, gaining confidence. The bot nodded and took only a moment to position himself behind Ted. He held his clawed palm out so Ted could see the direction they had to be heading, and rested his normal hand on the boys shoulder.

"Ready?" Over his shoulder, the robot nodded and that was all Ted needed, he hit the gas and off they sped.


End file.
